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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 




UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 





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Jop-jrrigk .!«'/:• 



TO 



The East 



BY WAY OF 



THE WEST. 



GIVING AN ACCOUNT OP WHAT THE AUTHOR SAW IN HEATHEN LANDS 

DURING HIS LATE MISSIONARY VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD ; ALSO 

GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OP TRAVEL AND SIGHT-SEEING IN 

TURKEY, GREECE, ROME, ITALY, FRANCE, SWITZERLAND, 

GERMANY AND ENGLAND. 

BY THE LATE 

BISHOP E. M. MARVIN, D.D.; 

WITH 

BIOGRAPHICAL SERMON, 

By bishop H. N. McTYEIRE, D.D., 



1^ INTRODUCTION, 

By rev. T. O. summers, D.D 



ILLUSTRATED. 






ST. LOUIS : 

BRYAN, BRAND & CO., PUBLISHERS. 

1878. 



ffr 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1877, by 

BRYAN, BRAND & CO., 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



MO 

,M 3 3 



BECKTOLD & CO 

BINDERS, 

215 Pine Street. 



LC Control Number 




CONTENTS, 



INTRODUCTION, 



THE VOYAGE, 



PAGE. 



CHAPTER I. 
CHAPTER II. 



DAI NIPPON, . . . . P 

CHAPTER III. 

A SUNDAY IN DAI NIPPON, 

CHAPTER IT. 

THE REVOLUTION OF 1868 IN DAI NIPPON, 

CHAPTER V. 

FROM YOKOHAMA TO NAGASAKI, 

CHAPTER VI. 

LIFE IN DAI NIPPON, 

CHAPTER VII. 

RELIGION IN DAI NIPPON, 

CHAPTER VIII. 

CHINA, ..... 

CHAPTER IX. 

ORDINATION OF THE NATIVE HELPERS, 

CHAPTER X. 

BY CANAL TO SOOCHOW AND HANGCHOW, 

CHAPTER XI. 

LAST DAYS IN CHINA, . 

CHAPTER XII. 

IN MEMORIAM, . 

CHAPTER XIII. 

FROM SHANGHAI TO CANTON, . 



5 

13 

21 

30 

40 

54 

66 

77 

87 

99 

110 

126 

135 

138 



11 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

SINGAPORE, ....... 153 

CHAPTER XV. 

TEN DAYS IN CEYLON, .... . 169 

CHAPTER XVI. 

CEYLON, MADRAS, CALCUTTA, . . . , . 189 

CHAPTER XVII. 

CALCUTTA, ....... 206 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

FROM CALCUTTA TO BENARES, .... 219 

CHAPTER XIX. 

LUCKNOW AND CAWNPORE, ..... 231 

CHAPTER XX. 

SHAHJEHANABAD, AKBARABAD, ALLAHABAD, , . . 245 

CHAPTER XXI. 

ODDS AND ENDS, . . . . . . 263 

CHAPTER XXII. 

FROM INDIA TO EGYPT, ..... 280 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
SUEZ — CAIRO, ...... 293 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

MEMPHIS— SIKKARAH—GIIIZEH, .... 310 

CHAPTER XXV. 

FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM, ..... 325 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

A WEEK IN JERUSALEM, ..... 340 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

JERUSALEM, ....... 357 

CHAPTER XXVIII, 

IN THE SADDLE AND IN THE TENT, .... 373 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

BETHEL — SHILOH— NABLOUS, .... 390 

CHAPTER XXX. 

FROM NABLOUS TO TIBERL\.S, . . . . 406 



CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER XXXI. 

SEA OF GALILEE, 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE WONDERS OF THE JORDAN, 

CHAPTER XXXIli. 

DAMASCUS AND THE BARADA, 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

BAALBEC — ZALEH — BEYROOT, 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

ON BOARD THE STEAMER ESPERO, 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

CONSTANTINOPLE, 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

ATHENS, .... 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

ITALY, ..... 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

CONCLUSION, .... 

APPENDIX, . . , . 



Ill 

. 426 

. 439 

. 454 

. 468 

. 484 

. 499 

. 614 

. 533 

. 565 

. 581 



INTRODUCTION. 



¥HE LAMENTED author of this book died 
before its pubHcation, so that it may be called 
a posthumous work. He was passing the last 
sheets through the press when his Divine Master 
called him from labor to reward. As the Letters 
of Bishop Marvin had been written at my earnest 
solicitation, and had been first published under my 
editorial supervision, and as there was a strong affec- 
tion between him and me, the Publishers requested 
me to write a Biographical Sketch of the Bishop for 
the work — which I consented to do. But after hear- 
ing Bishop McTyeire's Memorial Discourse, which 
comprises the main points in Bishop Marvin's life, 
I thought it would be like gilding refined gold to 
write the sketch, as the Discourse was kindly per- 
mitted to appear in the volume. But this does not 
preclude a brief Introduction, which it affords me 
pleasure to furnish. 

When the General Conference of 1874 requested 
one of the Bishops to visit China, in the interest of 
our Missionary work, and when the College of 
Bishops appointed Bishop Marvin to perform this 
service, as the President of the Board of Missions, 
I heartily approved of the suggestion that the 
Bishop should extend his tour, inspect the opera- 
tions of the various Missionary Societies in other 
parts of the world, and attend the session of the 
British Conference to represent our connection 
before that venerable body. In the address of that 
Conference to the General Conference of the M. E, 



VI INTRODUCTION. 

Church, South, to be presented at its next session, 
the British brethren say that the visit of the Bishop 
and his traveHng companion, the Rev. E. R. Hen- 
drix, *' afforded them no ordinary pleasure," which 
we can well believe. 

I requested him to furnish me a letter every week 
during his tour; and he did so. All his letters came 
safely to hand, so that they appeared regularly in 
successive numbers oi\h.^ CJudstian Advocate. They 
were written on ship-board, in tents, and in khans — 
ciuTente calamo — sometimes on coarse paper with 
a pencil ; and yet they required but a comparatively 
small amount of revision. Some slips in facts and 
dates, names of persons and places, and slight inac- 
curacies of expression, were unavoidable — but it 
was a labor of love to prepare them for the public 
eye. It may be safely said that few such letters from 
the Orient were ever v/rittcn, and few men could 
write any like them. 

He saw, as it were, with our eyes — or we sav\^ with 
his — the very things w^hich we wanted to see. His 
faculty of description and delineation was wonderful. 
Then he saw so much, and he rarely fails to make a 
full and sharply defined impression on the mind of 
the reader in regard to every thing which he de- 
scribes. The magnetic power which he had in per- 
sonal intercourse with men, is carried into his letters. 
There is a wonderful fascination in his style. No 
one ever wearies with it. The learned and the 
unlearned are alike entertained by it. He saw 
things "in a dry light," and he reports them without 
prejudice or exaggeration. 

He went on his tour with, a special object, and he 
never forgot it — he studied every thing in relation 
to it ; and acted as '' ever in his great Taskmas- 
ter's eye." His traveling companion, the Rev. E. R. 
Hendrix, bears a strong testimony to this in his 



INTRODUCTION, Vll 

excellent work, just published, bei'ng liis account of 
the same missionary tour. 

Bishop Marvin could not have produced a work 
like this, if he had not possessed a mind of unusually 
clear perceptions, a sound judgment, poetic and 
imaginative powers- of a high order, indomitable 
energy, and unquenchable zeal in the cause of 
Christ. 

The benefit conferred upon the Church by this 
missionary tour, thus faithfully and picturesquely 
reported, is incalculable. It has made the pulse of 
the Church beat higher — it has enlarged our view 
of the mission field, and suggested plans for its culti- 
vation — it has greatly strengthened the hands and 
comforted the hearts of our little band of missionaries 
in China, and those of other Churches in the lands 
visited by him, and the publication of his letters will 
do much to fan the flame of missionary zeal in the 
widespread Connection of which he was so bright 
an ornament and in which he labored with so much 
zeal and success. 

Bishop Marvin was a wonder unto many, includ- 
ing himself Though descended from a pious and 
learned ancestry — the world-renowned Puritans, 
Increase and Cotton Mather — he did not enjoy the 
advantage of much Christian culture in his early 
life. He was unprepossessing in his appearance and 
uncouth in his manners; but there was *' a gem of 
purest ray serene" hidden within the rough exterior 
— and it could not be hidden long. The lapidary 
who brought the tints to view, was, under God, him- 
self. He could not, indeed, have become the man 
he did become, if the Church had not afforded him 
the opportunity of developing himself; but many 
have as good opportunity without improving it. He 
was devout, consecrated, laborious. By God's bless- 
ing, trials, toils, and prayer, made him what he be- 

\ 



Vlll INTRODUCTION. 

came. The vessel may have retained some tang of 
what it first held ; but where shall we find a man who 
developed like him — so beautifully and so fast ? 

When, his name was proposed for the Episcopacy 
at the General Conference of 1866 — of which he was 
not a member — many w^ere astonished at the nomi- 
nation — who was Marvin ? But they were not more 
astonished than he was, when he heard of his elec- 
tion to that high office. Time has well vindicated 
the wisdom of the choice. Who is there like him 
on whom his mantle may fall ? 

He possessed great administrative ability, a keen 
insight into men, broad views and the power of 
rapid generalization — like *' the children of Issachar 
that had understanding of the times, and knew what 
Israel ought to do" — he was easy to be entreated, 
yet firm as a rock — no one more fully combining the 
suaviter in modo with the fortiter in re — the very 
man for a Methodist Bishop ! He might have sat 
for the portrait Paul drew of a Bishop in Titus i — 
especially was he " a lover of good men " — and he 
was ''a good hater " too — as David has it in Ps. xv: 
" In whose eyes a vile person is contemned, but he 
honoreth them that fear the Lord." 

He was no ''unpreaching prelate." He could 
preach, he did preach, he loved to preach. He did 
not wait for doors to open of their own accord — he 
pushed them open. He said with Paul, *'Wo is 
unto me if I preach not the gospel ! " — and like Paul, 
he felt it to be the highest honor conferred upon 
men to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, 
and he did preach it ! As he preached so often, and 
frequently with but little opportunity for preparation, 
there was considerable inequality in his pulpit per- 
formances — this indeed appears in his volume of 
Sermons. Sometimes his language was paradoxical, 
his method discursive, his speculations daring ; but 



INTRODUCTION. IX 

he never soared so high that he could not readily- 
come down to the sinner's heart, nor wandered so far 
that he was not speedily drawn back to the cross of 
Christ. With a slight modification, what Walton 
said of Donne may be said of Marvin : *' A preacher 
in earnest, weeping sometimes for his audience, 
sometimes with them ; always preaching to himself 
like an angel from a cloud, but in none; carrying 
some, as St. Paul was, to heaven in holy raptures, 
and enticing others by a sacred art and courtship to 
amend their lives; here picturing a vice so as to 
make it ugly to those that practiced it, and a virtue 
so as to make it beloved even by those that loved it 
not; and all this with a most particular grace and 
an inexpressible addition of comeliness." Some of 
his sermons will compare favorably with the chief 
performances'of the English pulpit — e.g., his sermon 
on Christ and the Church, with Jeremy Taylor's 
sermon on "The Marriage Ring;" the latter has 
more learning in it — indeed, a superabundance of it; 
a great fault in Taylor's works — but Marvin's is 
exquisitely beautiful, powerful, and edifying — as are 
several others of his sermons. 

He carried his magnetic power with hirn into the 
pulpit, but he did not leave it there. He drew all 
hearts to him wherever he went. In the Pauline 
sense, he was made all things to all men, that he 
might by all means save some. We heard a Pro- 
fessor in a University say that when he made it a 
visit, he modestly inquired into matters of science 
and learning when with the Faculty, conversed kindly 
and familiarly with the students, mingled with them 
in social religious services, preached like an angel in 
the pulpit, and encouraged all, gentle and simple, 
rich and poor, Jearned and rude, to lead a life of 
piety and virtue— thus making an impression upon 
all which time can never erase. Thus did he 
wherever he went. 



X INTRODUCTION. 

His course as a minister of Christ was so success- 
ful, because of his spirit of entire consecration to 
God, and his incorrupt and holy Hfe. He did not, 
like so many "ungracious pastors," preachers and 
prelates, 

" Show me the steep and rhorny way to heaven, 
Whilst, like a pufled and reckless libertine, 
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, 
And recks not his own rede." 

He was severe in his censures on himself, as he 
was liberal in his judgment of others — perhaps he 
was a thought too scrupulous in regard to his own 
conduct — his self-introspection at times seemed to be 
somewhat morbid. But his strong, abiding faith in 
the atonement and intercession of Christ — themes 
on which he loved to dwell — and his firm hold on the 
sanctifying, strengthening, and comforting grace of 
the Divine Paraclete — and his habits of prayer and 
unremitting labor, made him one of the most joyous, 
as he was one of the most holy and useful men of 
the age in which he lived. 

How mysterious that he should b^ called away 
^*in all his glorious prime" — that his " sun should 
go down while it was yet day " — that he should be 
summoned from labor, when he v/as " in full activity 
of zeal and power!" But then we know that the 
''Nunc dimittis'' comes at the proper period. 
"A Christian cannot die before his ti:t!e, 
The Lord's appoin'ment is the servaist'ss hour."' 

For several years I have expected him to die at 
an early date. The autopsy — the report of which 
I have before me — confirms my judgment concern- 
ing him. If he had not performed that excessive 
service on Sunday, a week before his death — if he 
had not by exposure contracted pneumonia which 
" hurried him hence ''--=-hi5 physicians assufg Us that 
hig days wgre^ nuffibifed, ftn4 th^y would- j^ot l^av^ 



INTRODUCTION. XI 

been many. He was evidently ripening in every 
sense for that celestial city whose glory he so en- 
chantingly described in the last sermon which he 
preached, exulting in the prospect of entering into 
that " city so holy and clean." 

*'The New Jerusalem on high, 
Ilath one pervading sanctity; 
No sin to mourn, no grief to mar, 
God and tlie Lamb its temple are!" 

He has entered through the gates into the city. 
Our " Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for 
God took him " — and he is " ever with the Lord " 
he loved so much, and served so well. 

Donne quaintly but strikingly says, '' We beg 
one baptism with another, a sacrament of tears ; and 
we come into a world that lasts many ages, but we 
last not. In domo Patris (says our blessed Saviour, 
speaking of heaven) miiltcE niansiones. There are 
many, and mansions divers and durable ; so that if 
a man cannot possess a martyr's house (he hath shed 
no blood for Christ), yet he may have a confessor's 
— he hath been ready to glorify God, in the shed- 
ding of his blood." So was it with our Marvin : if 
he did not belong to '' the noble army of martyrs," 
he had a confessor's spirit, and will wear a confes- 
sor's crown — which is scarcely less brilliant (some- 
times more so) than a martyr's — as it requires, in 
some instances, more faith and love to live for Christ 
than to die for him. 

It seems strange that when by his previous labors, 
and especially his late missionary tour, he was so emi- 
nently equipped and qualified for his work he should 
be so suddenly taken from it. But God makes no 
mistakes. "When Herod " killed James the brother 
of John with the sword" — thus breaking again the 
sacred number of the apostolic college before they 
had hardly begun their great work of evangelizing 



XU mTRODUCTlON. 

the world, the Head of the Church had *' a chosen 
vessel" that he was preparing for the apostolic office 
— one who became equal in ability and service 
to the chief of the apostles — in labors more abun- 
dant and more successful, we may well believe, than 
the martyred apostle whose place he filled could 
have been, had his life been spared. Devout men 
have carried Marvin to his burial, and the Church 
all over the land has made great lamentation over 
him — and well it might, for *' there is a prince and a 
great man fallen in Israel." Now let us do as the 
disciples of John did, when he was martyred by 
Herod Antipas — they ** took up the body, and 
buried it, and went ajid told Jesus y Let us tell him 
how poignantly we feel our loss — though he knows 
all about it — and let us ask him to fill the place of 
our fallen chief, by one of whom it may be said, 
*' The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha ! " 

The publication of this book, in an attractive style, 
it is devoutly hoped, will greatly promote the cause 
in which its author spent his life. It is commended 
to a wide circulation. Let it be put into every family 
and Sunday-school library, that its perusal may 
excite both old and young to emulate the zeal and 
devotion of its now glorified author. 

Thos. O. Summers. 
Nashville, Tenn., Dec. lo, iS'jy, 



CHAPTER I. 

THE VOYAGE. 

^^N WEDNESDAY, Nov. i, 1876, 1 left the house 
I I of Mr. Goad, ''mine host" in San Francisco, 
^"^^ and made my way to the good ship Alaska, on 
board of which, by the thoughtful foresight of my 
traveling companion, one of the best state-rooms had 
been secured. He and I had each a room, and the 
two rooms opened into each other. 

Several brethren, some of whom had come fifty 
miles for the purpose, came on board to take leave of 
us. We had had the ''communion of the body and 
blood of the Lord" together the evening before, and 
now with prayer and a tender love, like that of apos- 
tolic times, they dismissed us to our distant work, 
and we parted from them not without emotion. 

On board we wrote "good-by" postal cards to our 
families, and promptly at the hour advertised, our 
ropes were unfastened, the signal was given, a steam- 
tug was fastened to our bow, and we were towed 
out into the Bay. Soon our motion was arrested, 
and we stopped in the middle of the Bay for 
the mails. The post-master had been a trifle, slow, 
and our prompt captain would not wait, but was 
about to be off, mail or no mail. A signal arrested 
him, however, and he waited until a tug brought it 
out and delivered it on board. 



14 THE VOYAGE. 

As we drifted from the wharf our friends stood 
waving us their final adieus. We noted the spot 
where they stood, and long after their features were 
lost, and as long as a white handkerchief was vis- 
ible, they still signaled us their love and their 
prayers. One lady had notified us that she would 
have a white flag afloat for us on her house, 
which commands the Bay almost to the ocean. We 
did our best, with a good glass, to discover it, but it 
was too far away. But we knew it was there, and 
that was sufficient. So it is with many of the best 
things — we know they are there, though we see them 
not. The divinest things are beyond the range of 
vision, but we know they are therey and that sufificeth 
for our joy. 

The white flag ! It was an appropriate symbol of 
our mission, which was that of our Master. Our 
voyage to the East was on a mission of peace to the 
nations- — peace and purity. We go in the name of 
the King of Salem. Righteousness and peace are 
the fruit of his dominion, and the white banner dis- 
misses his messengers upon their enterprises of love. 

We soon steamed past Goat Island and Alcatraz, 
and passed out through the Golden Gate into the 
''wide, wide sea." In a short time the shore-line 
began to sink, and the Farralone Islands came in 
sight. These we passed just at sunset, and we shall 
see no more land until we get to the shores of Japan. 
After-dinner we went on deck to take our last view 
of our " native land." We could see nothing but the 
revolving light of the light-house on the islands — for 
it was night. The last we saw of our country was a 
blaze of light. We took joy from that. Will the 



THE VOYAGE. Ij 

God of our fathers bring us back in peace? His will 
be done ! 

I count myself happy in that I go not upon this 
journey alone. My traveling companion is the Rev. 
Eugene R. Hendrix, of the Missouri Conference. 
His education and instincts alike prepare him for the 
tour, which he has been contemplating for several 
years. He has read much with a view to it, and is 
my vade mecum — a most convenient and complete 
one. This is not a trip for pleasure, merely, with him, 
nor one of curiosity; but prompted mainly by a de- 
sire to see the battle as it rages along the front lines 
of the army of invasion and occupation, by which 
the Son of God is going forward to the conquest of 
the world. He has been greatly instrumental in the 
recent enlargement of our work in China, and is pro- 
foundly concerned for the glory and kingdom of 
Christ. This is the chief source of his desire to see 
the world. It is in the world, as it belongs to the 
Lord of life and glory, that he is interested — a world 
that belongs to Christ, but is yet alienated from him, 
and which he has commissioned his people to recover 
to himself. 

When he learned of my contemplated tour, he im- 
mediately proposed to be m.y companion of the way. 
I had known him from his boyhood, and received 
the proposal with delight. His presence will con- 
tribute much to the objects of the tour, will be a 
great pleasure to me, will afford me much of that 
deep and hallowed experienag which is realized in 
tha '^fellowship of saintsy" and ba helpful to me in 
many ways; 

We have §oi a great many first-class passenger<;-=^ 



1 6 THE VOYAGE. 

only about twenty-five or thirty, and I am glad to see 
that we are not to be troubled much with the class so 
expressively denominated snobs. For the most part 
they seem to be sensible, well-disposed, and well- 
behaved people. 

Among them is the Rev. William Dean, of the 
Baptist Mission at Bangkok, Siam. He is a venera- 
ble man, who has been for forty years and more 
engaged in missionary labors in Siam and Southern 
China. He is full of information that will be very 
valuable to me, has a clear view and strong sense of 
all the difficulties in the way of the conversion of the 
heathen, and yet rejoices in the inspiration of an 
assured faith in the ultimate and early subjugation of 
these nations to Christ. Even from a rational and 
human stand-point he thinks the indications are all of 
a most assuring character. 

There is also a young lady, a Miss Thompson, 
on her way to China to labor as a teacher in 
connection with the Baptist Mission. She is un- 
der, a contract with the Board not to marry for five 
years. 

There are also on board four Japanese in American 
costume. They are good-looking men, and of a 
complexion not too dark to be agreeable. One of 
them, especially, impresses me very favorably. He 
looks for all the world just like Dr. Summers, if you 
can imagine the Doctor of an orange color — no, not 
orange, that is too yellow, but of the complexion of 
my ascended friend, Alejo Hernandez, who wa§ the 
first-fruits of Mexico, This Jap is like Dr. S, in the 
shape of the head, the forehead, the nose, the face, 
the mouth, the eyes— except the color—the express 



THE VOYAGE. 1/ 

sion, and even the spectacles. He is also evidently 
a student and a scholar. 

I intend to become acquainted with these men, and 
find out what manner of spirit they are of. They 
have very much the air of intelligent American citi- 
zens in their pantaloons and frock coats. I suppose 
they have been attending some college, as they 
speak English very well. 

The preceding was written two days ago. I have 
since learned that one of the four Japs — the one who 
resembles Dr. S. — has been five years at Amherst 
College, and has become a very intelligent and 
earnest Christian. The other three have been at 
school in Germany, and are returning home infidels. 

Tall Wuyesugi — pronounced Weeyasuge — is the 
name of the Amherst student. He says the Japanese 
are becoming infidels rapidly. They have outgrown 
Sintooism, and have no other religion to take its 
place. He hopes that when the word of God becomes 
widely disseminated they will embrace it, but the 
almost universal tendency now is to infidelity. From 
a ridiculous and absurd faith the drift is to no faith. 
Is not this the opportune moment for the Church? 

Our ship is rather an old one, but very sound and 
solidly built. Being a side-wheeler, it does not roll so 
much as the screw propellers. It is in fact the most 
steady-going ship I have ever traveled upon. The 
motion is so slight that there is very little sea-sick- 
ness on board. The weather favors us too — yet the 
ground-swell is as great as when I came down from 
Portland to San Francisco, and ovi that trip one-half 
the passengers were laid aside. 

Captain Howard is a gentleman of large intelli- 



1 8 THE VOYAGE. 

gence, affable, communicative, accommodating. We 
are beginning to be quite at home with him and all 
the officers, who conspire to render our voyage agree- 
able. 

All the crew are Chinese. The Captain is a great 
admirer of the Chinese. He affirms that they are the 
most efficient servants in the world. As sailors they 
have no superiors, and as cooks and waiters no equals. 
I must say that an experience of three days now goes 
far to confirm this opinion with me, so far as the pantry 
and dining-room are concerned. I have never seen 
this service so perfectly done. They are polite, alert, 
expert, attentive, and noiseless. Any call is instantly 
attended to, and all is done without confusion. It is 
admirable ! 

There are five hundred and seventy-one Chinese 
steerage passengers returning home. As to cleanli- 
ness and general good conduct I do not see that 
they rank below the average of laboring men in the 
great cities. But they are gambling almost con- 
stantly. Look down into the steerage when you 
will, they are throwing dice, in groups, seated on the 
floor, and exchanging counters. 

Wednesday we set sail on a beautiful day, Thurs- 
day the sky was overspread with thin clouds, Friday 
it rained the greater part of the day, and Saturday — 
to-day — there are clouds about, but the sun is out 
the greater part of the time. Under these varying 
conditions of the sky, I have been greatly interested 
in studying the various aspects of the water. I have 
often heard of the green sea and thd deep-blue sea. 
In shallow Water the" §i^ Is greeil^ m deep water blue, 
ander a eka^f ssky.- Bi*t th@ hue c^ha-nges under 



THE VOYAGE. 1$ 



changing skies, and the tints of the water respond to 
all the varying shades of reflected light that fall upon 
it. I despair of giving any one who never saw it any 
idea of the almost infinite varieties of coloring I have 
seen in the morning, at mid-day, at sunset, under a 
clear sky, under broken clouds, under thin clouds, 
under heavy clouds, at night, under the moon, with- 
out a moon— blue, brown, gray, purple, cinnamon, 
orange, russet, lead-color, steel, opal, and a thousand 
nameless tints, all shading into each other and modi- 
fying each other as the light shifts in the clouds, and 
all rendered into expressions of heightened beauty 
by the agitation of the waves. Sometimes in heavy 
shadings a section of the water will look like ink, 
while within the sweep of vision a score of lighter 
tints will greet the eye. When the sun is out, as you 
look seaward at a certain angle every wavelet is 
tipped with diamond. 

Last night, when the moon was at an angle of ten 
degrees with the eastern horizon, a broad pathway of 
pearl strewed the ocean under her smile, while both 
to the northward and southward heavy clouds 
frowned upon the water, and the darkness, in con- 
trast with the glow toward the east, seemed not mere 
darkness, but something more positive. This imme- 
diate vicinity and contrast of glow and gloom pro- 
duced a strange effect upon me. It was a fascina- 
tion. There was a subdued sense of exaltation. 
Existence seemed to come into a new expression, 
and infinite mysteries to be half disclosed, but yet 
concealed; and to offer their import at just the dis- 
tance to tantalize you most deeply. 

The gulls that followed us two days are all gone 



20 THE VOYAGE. 

now, but they are replaced by a more graceful bird 
— the gannet. Three or four of them float along on 
their long, narrow wings, often so near the surface of 
the water that, turning one wing downward, the tip 
of it actually grazes the water, and so they skim 
along for some distance. They seem really to relish 
this quiet sort of sport. 

After the lapse of two days, I resume again. The 
Sabbath is passed. By invitation of the Captain I 
preached in the social hall at half-past ten. The 
venerable Dr. Dean concluded the service. The 
greater part of the passengers attended devoutly. 
There was a solemn sense of the presence of God 
among us. A subdued spirit pervaded the vessel 
during the remainder of the day. After dinner — 
which is at six — there was sacred music, and several 
hymns were sung in the social hall. I have never 
passed a Sunday on ship-board which was so Sab- 
bath-like. At lunch the Captain entered freely and 
seriously into conversation with me. He spoke of 
his Methodist wife training her children in the fear 
of the Lord, and of his aged Baptist father joyfully 
waiting for his change, with tears in his eyes. He 
was deeply touched by the service. 

Brother H. and I are reading the Bible in both 
Testaments, in course, with conversational comment 
in connection with our morning prayers. For this 
our double state-room is very convenient. In these 
readings and prayers we come very near to God. 

We are likely to have a long voyage, as the Alaska 
is one of the slowest of the line, and the weather, 
though pleasant, is not very favorable to speed. 



CHAPTER 11. 

DAI NIPPON. 

ON THURSDAY morning, Nov. 30, when we 
went out on deck, a little before sunrise, we saw 
ahead the low mountain-ranges on the coast of 
Dai Nippon. 

On our maps at home the principal one of the 
islands of the Japan group is named Niphon. The 
native word here is Nippon ; and this is the name, not 
simply of this one island, but of the whole country. 
Japan is the name given to it by foreigners, not by the 
natives themselves. 

As we steamed up toward the entrance to the Gulf 
of Yeddo, Fuji Ama soon came into view. It is a 
beautiful elevation, conical, and, at this season of the 
year, covered with snow. It is 12,000 feet high, and 
dominates the landscape in every direction for a hun- 
dred miles. But my recent familiarity with Mount 
Hood, in Oregon, had in some degree disqualified me 
for the enthusiasm expected of every one on his first 
view of this peerless monarch of the great Nippon 
range. 

It was one o'clock when we came in sight of Yoko- 
hama; but we had already seen much of Japan before 
we went ashore. Native towns stand thick all along 
the coasts of the bay, and with our glasses we got a 
good view of them. Besides that, the bay was cov- 



52 DAI NIPPON. 

ered with little fishing boats, and here and there we 
saw a junk. We also passed a native war steamer — 
very small — intended, I suppose, for police duty in 
the bay. But it had a trim look and bounded along 
over the waters very gracefully. The government 
has a few really formidable ships iir its nascent navy, 
which have been purchased of European or Amer- 
ican governments. Among others, I had pointed 
out to me the great Confederate iron-clad, Stonewall. 
The name has been changed, and she now wears 
some unpronouncea.ble Japanese name. She has a 
formidable, stubborn look, worthy of her history and 
her former name. 

We steamed up the bay against a headwind that 
was almost a gale. For four weeks we had seen no 
life except that which was on board with us. Not 
one sail did we sight on the entire voyage, and the 
few gannets that followed us for our crumbs were the 
only living creatures that showed themselves. But 
now, at the end of a month, here we are in this popu- 
lous bay, covered vv^ith white sail, and fringed with 
towns. It was a pleasant sensation that arose upon 
our sudden advent into the world of human life again, 
and we could scarcely realize that it was a heathen 
world. 

It was near two o'clock when we came to anchor, 
half a mile out from the wharves. Already a fleet of 
little boats crowded about the place, eager for a job. 
Among them were a few more prententious ones, 
representing the hotels of the city, which come, like 
omnibuses, to convey the guests to their destination. 
These floated their flags and names — '' Grand Hotel," 
*' International," "Oriental," and I believe there was 



DAI NIPPON. 23 

a fourth, the name of which I do not recall. The 
runners came on board, and offered their tickets in a 
polite way, that contrasted very pleasantly with the 
rude and boisterous urgency of those you often meet 
at home. 

So soon as the ladder was lowered, the scramble of 
the boats began. A little craft, propelled by steam, 
and carrying American colors, came in first for the 
mails, and after that it was a free fight. The strong- 
est and most persistent got in first. 

Soon a young man greeted me, and although he 
had grown up from mere boyhood since I had seen 
him, he need not have announced his name; I knew 
him instantly. It was young Merriman, formerly of 
St. Louis. He was followed in a short time by the 
Rev. R. S. Maclay, of the M. E. Church, who is the 
Superintendent of the Mission in Japan. We had been 
already invited to the hospitalities of his house. So 
soon as we could get through the press we got our- 
selves and our baggage on board of a little native 
boat, and started for the shore. Our boat would be 
called a skiff, though it differed in shape and general 
appearance from an American skiff, and, as all Ja- 
panese crafts of its class are, was propelled by 
5^2////;^^ insts ad of rowing. 

Once landed, we were in a strange world — we were 
among the Orientals. Our baggage was submitted 
to inspection at the Custom-House, and then we were 
invited by Dr. M. to take our choice oi jin-rik i-slia. 
These little carriages on two wheels have a stand at 
this convenient place, and were there in great num- 
bers, waiting for a job. The word jinrikisha means, 
literally, a man-pozii-ier carriage. They are a recent iiv- 



24 DAI NIPPON. 

vention — the product, in fact, of American civilization 
in Japan. The bed is constructed somewhat after the 
model of a buggy, and has a top that may be raised 
or lowered as that of a buggy is. Each one is de- 
signed to carry one man; but when the native Japs 
take a ride, two often crowd in. One man be- 
tween the shafts constitutes the team. Imagine my 
feelings, to be drawn by a man in shafts, as if he were 
a horse ! I was literally ashamed of myself. Talk 
about Southern slavery ! The average negro in the 
South was a lord, compared with the coolie of the 
East. 

It was Thanksgiving day, and our friends had been 
invited to dine with the Rev. Mr. Ballagh, of the 
Dutch Reformed Church. He was one of the first, 
if not the very first, missionary in Japan. We could 
scarcely realize that we were on a foreign shore. 
Here we were, dining with Americans, in a house of 
the American style, with genial, cultivated American 
people, and on the American Thanksgiving day! 
But it was in the East, and our ride in the jinrikisha 
had fairly introduced us into it. I think no man can 
lose sight of the fact that he is in another world, after 
having taken a ride by man-power. 

Soon after dinner, as the night fell, we repaired to 
the pleasant home of Dr. Maclay, where we had a 
welcome as warm as if it had been among our kin- 
dred. 

As we had less than a week to appropriate to Japan, 
we must needs bestir ourselves to see what was to be 
seen, and so we p.rrange4 to go, in company wnth our 
host, to Kamakura. This was at one time the capi- 
tal pf the empire ; but that was two pr three hundred 



DAI NIPPON. 25 

years ago. There still remain, however, sufficient 
relics of its former glory to make it a locality of 
great interest. So, after an early breakfast, our carri- 
ages were at the door — three of them — with a team 
of two men to each ; for the ride was to be a long one, 
and so we must have an adequate team — one in the 
shafts, and one to push from behind. 

The morning was frosty, the air crisp and bracing, 
and our teams struck a trot. Away we went, through 
the suburbs, and out through the rice-fields, by roads 
that were never made for carriages, over bridges that 
were not made for horses — on and on, until I felt the 
most painful sense of compassion for our men. See 
how the perspiration pours out this frosty morning, 
until their scanty clothing is as wet as that of a harvest 
hand in July ! But on they go — on and on — still in 
a trot. Indeed it was a team of admirable spirit. 
Think of your horses looking back to see that they 
were placing your wheels on the safe places, as you 
cross over the unsafe bridges. What stupid brutes 
your American horses are ! 

The country through which we passed fairly swarms 
with villages ; every inch of available soil is in culti- 
vation, and the amount of labor expended on every 
acre is something wonderful. Even wheat is planted 
by the hand, in rows, and cultivated with the hoe. 
Along the roadside we found rice spread out on mats 
to dry; for the harvest is just over. Indeed we saw 
one man cutting the last corner of his patch. Some 
were threshing it — that is, drawing it through long 
iron teeth projecting from the end of a board, to re- 
move the grains ; some were cleaning it with their 
primitive fans ; some were beating it in mortars, to 



26 DAI NIPPON. 

hull it ; and some were putting it up in the coarse 
sacks of matting used for that purpose. 

Twelve miles soon passed away amid these new 
scenes, and we found ourselves whirling through the 
old capital. Emerging again into the country, we 
stopped, and entered the precincts of an old temple, 
or what seemed to have been several temples. It lay 
in a cove in the low mountains, in a setting of natural 
scenery that was very picturesque. There are a good 
many buildings which I cannot describe, many of 
them falling into decay. Some, however, are kept in 
repair by a few Buddhist priests that seem to haunt 
the grounds like ghosts. Indeed I have been half 
tempted since to believe they must be ghosts; for 
they were the only priests we sav/ who did not have 
some contrivance for collecting fees. But there was 
a deserted air about the whole place. The objects of 
greatest interest were some caves and niches, cut into 
the solid rock in the side of the mountain, in which 
there were some images ; and a monster bell. This 
bell is upon the summit of the loftiest hill around the 
cove. You ascend to it by a long flight of stone 
steps, laid upon the steep ascent, and when you reach 
the top you overlook the entire cove and all the build- 
ings below. The bell is suspended under a mere 
shed, upon a very massive frame. It is of a peculiar 
shape — that is, pecuHar to the eye of a foreigner — 
though all the large bells I have seen here are of the 
same pattern. The peculiarity is, they are unusually 
deep from top to bottom, as they hang. This one is 
fourteen feet in girth and seven feet high, and being 
oval at the top, it soon reaches its full size, and has 
very much the shape of an inverted goblet. It is cov- 



DAI NIPPON. 27 

ered over with Inscriptions from sacred books, In the 
Chinese character. The metal is five inches thick. It 
has no clapper, but is rung on this wise : A log of 
wood, six or eight inches in diameter and about eight 
feet long, is suspended in a horizontal position, by two 
chains — one near each end — one end being, as it 
hangs in rest, about eighteen inches from the side of 
the bell, and opposite to a round section of the sur- 
face, raised a little to receive the blow. The bell is 
rung by raising this battering-ram, or rather drawing 
it back from the bell as far as the chains will allow, 
and suddenly letting it go. The impulse brings the 
end against the bell, and the stroke wakes the 
echoes. It was rung for us several times, and I 
thought the tone very impressive. 

As we descended from the bell, returning to the 
place where v/e had left our jinrikishas, we passed 
by an old temple, now used as a school-house, in 
which there is a public school taught — one of the 
many supported by the government all over the 
empire. We turned aside to see how a Japanese 
school Is managed. An usher met us at the door, 
and soon the master, a very young man, appeared. 
He was delighted with our visit. Nothing would do 
but we must come in. Two of the larger children 
were sent off for chairs for us to sit on. Dr. Maclay 
explained to us that the text-books, which he exam- 
ined, were all recent translations of American books. 
The teacher must needs have us to witness some of 
the exercises of his pupils, and so he rubbed out the 
Chinese characters that covered the blackboard, and 
set down some examples in arithmetic, all in Ar?ibic 
numerals, with the minus, plus, and other signs, taken 



28 DAI NIPPON. 

from the American books so lately Introduced. 
These public schools are one of the many signs of 
the times in this singular nation. I shall have more 
to say of them hereafter. 

From this point we went on about a mile to another 
and more magnificent temple, to which v/e ascended 
by a flight of fifty stone steps, at the end of a beau- 
tiful paved avenue. The matters of principal inter- 
est here are relics of the old Shoguns, who were the 
actual emperors, although they did everything in the 
name of the Mikado. There are massive helmets 
and coats of mail, worn by those military chieftains 
over five hundred years ago. There are also the 
most elegant sv/ords and other implements of warfare, 
as well as the writing apparatus of one of the most 
distinguished of the old heroes. All this was shown 
for a small fee, by the Buddhist priest in attendance. 

We soon saw all of this display that we cared to 
see, and took to our man-carriages again, to be trot- 
ted off two miles to see the celebrated Dai Butsu — 
pronounced here Di Bootz. Butsu is the Japanese 
name of Buddha, and Dai means great. Dai Butsu 
— the great Buddha. It is a colossal image, forty- 
four feet high, and at the largest part twenty feet in 
diameter from front to rear, and twenty-five feet from 
side to side. It is of fine bronze, cast in sections, 
the metal not being more than two or three inches 
thick, so that the image is perfectly hollow. It rests 
on a foundation of stone about five feet high, a door 
opening through the foundation to the interior. Half 
way up the back, or a little more, are two small 
v/indows, and just belov/ the windows there is a rude 
platform, reached by a ladder, Mounting this we 



DAI NIPPON. 29 

were fairly In the bosom of Buddha — which is Nir- 
vana, the Buddhist heaven. So you see in what 
celestial regions we have been ! 

Returning to the outside, we got a ladder, ascended 
to the hands, found the thumbs to be three feet in 
circumference, and the nails of the thumbs four 
inches by six. The image is seated, with the feet 
under the body, and, like most of the images of 
Buddha, rests in a lotus flower, there being a popular 
tradition that he came across the ocean from India to 
Japan on a lotus-blossom. Massive as this figure is, 
the proportions are well preserved, every part being 
in keeping with the rest, and it is certainly a marvel 
of art. The pose of the body, the set of the head, and, 
above all, the expression of the face, combine to real- 
ize the ideal of perfect repose. I never saw any ideal 
more palpably or fully realized. Perfect tranquillity 
of spirit is in every feature of the face and in the 
posture of the body. In nearly all of the images 
here there is something grotesque, something un- 
natural, but not so with Dai Butsu. Every thing is 
natural and comely, the proportions and attitude 
being exactly in keeping with the ideal. 

We extended our trip from Dai Butsu along the 
shore of the Bay, to visit the island of Enoshema, 
which is accessible on foot when the tide is low. But 
the tide was up now, and we were not disposed to 
wade. Three Japs, with powerful frames, offered us 
their shoulders for a ride. But it was getting late, 
and we determined to retrace our steps. Soon strik- 
ing the Tokaido, we had an excellent road back to 
Yokohama, seventeen miles. We started at eight 
o'clock in the morning, got back at seven in the even- 



30 A SUNDAY IN DAI NIPPON. 

Ing, took full four hours for sight-seeing, and traveled 
thirty-seven or eight miles. How will that do for a 
man-team ? 

The Tokaido is the great National road. 



CHAPTER in. 

A SUNDAY IN DAI NIPPON. 

IT SO happened that the Sunday after our arrival 
at Yokohama was the time of the quarterly-meet- 
ing of the Methodist Mission at that place. 
On Saturday the Quarterly Conference met at Dr. 
Maclay's residence. The members present were Mr. 
Hattori, Mr. Makino, Mr. Kosugi, Mr. Kudo, and 
Mr. Kurimura — five in all. There was one absent, 
having been called away to Tokio to look after some 
relatives who had been burnt out in the recent great 
fire in that place. Conference was opened with 
prayer in Japanese, by Dr. Maclay. Brother Hattori 
was elected Secretary. The routine of Quarterly 
Conference business laid down in the Discipline was 
not followed, for the reason that the organization of 
the Church is not yet so complete as to require it. 



A SUNDAY IN DAI NIPPON. 3 1 

The first item of business was reports from the 
native helpers. These helpers are exhofters only, 
none having yet been licensed to preach. All the 
members of the Conference were exhorters, except 
Kurimura, who was a stev/ard. The helpers reported, 
I. The number of times they had preached during 
the quarter; 2. The number of places at which they 
had preached; 3. The distances traveled by them in 
reaching their appointments; 4. The number of pro- 
bationers at their several stations; and, 5. The num- 
ber of new inquirers since the last Quarterly Confer- 
ence. One had preached only in his own neighbor- 
hood once or twice a Sunday; but one other had 
preached ninety times. The people had taken to 
coming to him of their own accord every evening, 
and he always delivered them a discourse. Some of 
them had traveled considerable ^distances, always on 
foot. Only the wealthy can travel in any other way. 

The reports for the quarter were very encouraging. 
Quite a number of probationers were reported, and 
several new inquirers, and the heart of the mission- 
aries was full of hope. 

One other point was reported upon by the helpers 
— what portions of the Scriptures they had studied 
during the quarter. Most of them had studied two 
or three books of the New Testament, usually one of 
the Gospels and one or two of the Epistles. But one 
of them- — I believe it was Kudo, though I have the 
names a little mixed — had read the New Testament 
through twice. This brother had the advantage of 
being a very good Chinese scholar to begin with. 

Miscellaneous business was then taken up, and one 
cf the brethren proposed Brother Kurimura for 



32 A SUNDAY IN DAI NIPI^ON. 

license to exhort. The brother was called upon to 
give some account of his experience, whereupon he 
rose to his feet and made some remarks with an air 
of modesty and sincerity that pleased me much. The 
substance of it, as given me by Dr. Maclay, was, that 
he knew but little of the Scriptures as yet, but what 
he did know had filled him with the desire to bring 
others to the same knowledge. I had met him 
already a day or two before and had some conversa- 
tion with him through an interpreter. This man 
interested me much. He is a born gentleman. The 
Japanese are all polite, but there was a mingled dig- 
nity and affability in this young man that took me 
captive. Then there was such propriety and good 
sense in all he said, and such delicacy, both of per- 
ception and feeling, as marked him a man of high 
order. He has been in the service of the Govern- 
ment, but resigns it that he may serve in the gospel. 
He reminded me of Alejo Hernandez, the first-fruits 
of Mexico. 

Then came a question that our home Churches 
had been troubled with sometimes — a question which 
is already a practical one here. One of the helpers 
reported an inquirer who had been baptized by the 
Roman Catholics. Is this baptism valid? Some 
other matters of local interest were talked over, and 
the Conference was dismissed with the benediction 
by the visiting brother from America. 

The morning of the Lord's-day dawned brightly 
upon Dai Nippon, and the love-feast was to begin at 
half-past eight. This was half an hour earlier than 
usual, and the brethren were not on time. They were 
slow. This is one trouble our bre.thren have. The 



A SUNDAY IN DAI NIPPON. 33 

people have not been trained to punctuality, and it 
seems impossible to impress them with the impor- 
tance of it. Besides,. they have no time-pieces, and 
cannot therefore be very precise. But by nine o'clock 
the little Church had got together, a lesson out of the 
Scriptures was read, a hymn was sung, prayer was 
offered, and the bread and water distributed. 

Then came my first address to the native Church 
— my first utterance in God's name in the Eastern 
Hemisphere. It was brief, practical, and from the 
heart, and was well rendered into Japanese by Mr. 
Soper, of Tokio. There were four missionaries pres- 
ent, new arrivals from the Evangelical Association — 
two men and two women. Dr. Maclay thought it 
well to ask them to speak, which they did in excel- 
lent spirit, what they said being interpreted by the 
older missionaries. The lateness of the hour made 
it necessary to close without giving the native breth- 
ren any opportunity to speak, which I regretted ; for 
although I should not have understood a word of 
what was said, I should have been able to observe 
the manner and spirit of it. 

At eleven o'clock I preached in the Union Church, 
to a rather small but exceptionally intelligent con- 
gregation of English-speaking people, with good lib- 
erty, and at good length. Having but this one oppor- 
tunity for a life-time to deliver a message from God 
to them, I could not afford to bind myself down to 
the orthodox thirty-five or forty minutes — and the 
people listened with exemplary patience, at least, 
and, indeed, with apparent interest. I felt that 
the word was spoken not in vain. Was it a weak- 
ness in me to feel a profound sense of satisfaction in 



34 A SUNDAY IN DAI NIPPON. 

preaching the gospel on the other side of the world ? 
How infinite has been the goodness of God to me, 
that I should have this mercy ! 

At three o'clock the native Church assembled 
again for a most interesting service. The approved 
probationers of six months were to be baptized. Mr. 
Soper of Tokio preached an earnest sermon, and 
fluent, I thought, considering that it is but three years 
since he commenced the study of this very peculiar 
language. Then the candidates for baptism — nine in 
number, seven men and two women — were called to 
the altar. They evidently understood the gravity of 
the occasion. They understood the " vow of repent- 
ance, faith, and obedience," which they were assum- 
ing. For six months, or more, they had been care- 
fully taught the Christian doctrine and morality, and 
now, after time for deliberation, they were publicly 
and in this solemn manner giving themselves to God. 
One of them was a man who had visited Europe in 
one of the Government Embassies. The Methodist 
Church in Yokohama was organized less than two 
years ago, and now numbers twenty-eight, mostly of 
an intelligent and influential class. It might have 
been larger, but that the. brethren wisely hold appli- 
cants as probationers until they seem to be well pre- 
pared to take the vows. Inquirers are appearing in 
increasing numbers all the while, and the outlook is 
inspiring. 

After the baptism the sacrament of the Lord's-sup- 
per was administered. Dr. Maclay officiating. With 
what joy I met these men, so recently in the darkness 
of Sintooism and Buddhism, now kneeling at the 
cross of Christ ! While we broke the bread together, 



A SUNDAY IN DAI NIPPON. 35 

God himself was present, and we did eat of angels* 
food ; and while we drank the wine we had already a 
foretaste of that juice of the vine which the Lord 
will drink new with his people in his Father's king- 
dom. 

At night Mr. Hattori preached an expository ser- 
mon, dwelling with special emphasis on the "bed 
undefiled" — a point that is to be strongly guarded by 
the infant Church here. The brother, in this instance, 
told them plainly that the defiled bed does not mean 
unwashed bedclothes, but adultery, which is infinitely 
more unclean. This is putting the matter strongly 
to a native, for anything filthy about their houses is 
held to be intolerable. Even the poorest of them are 
scrupulously given to bathing, and the very floors of 
their houses, where they are not covered with nice, 
clean mats, fairly shine from under the industrious 
hand of the housekeeper. Already the Japs have 
this associate of godliness, according to Mr. Wesley 
— cleanliness. 

Only one thing marred my enjoyment of the day. 
Going down town to the Union Church, I passed 
through a crowded part of the city, and saw the toil- 
ing thousands who have no Sunday. It was a heart- 
sickening sight. I suppose that human muscle is 
nowhere more severely taxed than in Japan, and it 
has no Sunday, but the exacting toil goes on until 
death brings the final release. There is an immense 
amount of v/ork done, and human muscle does it 
nearly all. In Tokio there are now a few vehicles 
drawn by horses, but only a very few. In Yokohama 
I did not see one, except a few buggies owned by 
foreign residents. Two carts I saw drawn by a single 



36 A SUNDAY IN DAI NIPPON. 

OX each; but the clumsy-wheeled vehicles loaded 
with lumber, earth, stone — every thing, in short, 
required in a growing city — and drawn by men, were 
abundant; and they were loaded so heavy that the 
utmost muscular strain was requisite to move them. 
In the country, with the exception of the great 
Tokaido, the roads will admit of no vehicle but the 
narrow jinrikisha, so that the produce of the country 
goes to market either on the shoulders of men or on 
the backs of pack-horses; and judging from what I 
saw, I should s'ay that by far the greater part is car- 
ried by men. A pole with baskets, boxes or packa- 
ges suspended from each end is balanced on the 
shoulder, whereupon the bearer trots off, it may be 
many miles, to his market town. Then what he pur- 
chases is carried home the same way. Happy is the 
farmer who has a pack-horse to relieve him of this 
heavy burden. A good many, indeed, have horses, 
but multitudes have none. The soil is prepared for 
planting by the spade, and the cultivated portions 
are generally flat — not always. But for rice, if a 
naturally flat surface is not found, it is made by ter- 
racing the slope. Over this water is run from 
ditches, and the rice, first sown in beds, is transplant- 
ed by the hand in overflowed ground, the laborer 
standing often knee-deep in mud and water. It is 
planted in bunches, and they in straight rows. The 
ditches are kept all the time in perfect repair, and 
every square yard of ground is cultivated with as 
much care as the best gardens at home. In the 
regions through which I passed every available foot 
was in cultivation. Every little strip and patch by 
the road-side was spaded up and planted, either m. 



A SUNDAY IN DAI NIPPON. 3/ 

rice or vegetables. This incessant labor and burden- 
bearing has had its effect on the muscles of the men. 
One of the first things a foreigner notices is the enor- 
mous size of the muscles in their legs, which even now 
in December are often naked. And all this toil is so 
poorly remunerated that it must be incessantly kept 
up only to keep soul and body together. Happy is 
the poor fellow who gets employment with a for- 
eigner at five or six dollars a month, and feeds him- 
self Even the domestic servants feed themselves. 
They cook sumptuous dinners for their masters, and 
then go and consume their rice with their families, 
and their five dollars a month must feed and clothe 
them and their famihes. Rice is their principal food, 
though now they are beginning to eat a little flesh. 
Heretofore they have abstained from animal food 
under the influence of Buddhism partly, and partly 
from poverty. Now Buddhism is losing its hold, but 
poverty is not. Does the future offer anything bet- 
ter? I shall have something to say on that subject 
further on. But at present the laboring classes are 
ground down to the earth, and they have no Sun- 
day, no Lord's-day, no hallowed pause between 
periods of incessant toil. Life is all one unbroken 
period of toil. There are, indeed, many holidays, 
but they do not bring rest to the laborer. They 
are gala days on which those who can afford it 
go to the temples and have a good time ; but traffic 
goes on all the same, and I saw no signs of intermit- 
ted labor in the city. 

I had seen it stated in the papers, before I left 
home, that the Japanese Government had adopted 
the Christian Sabbath. It is true that it is made a 



38 A SUNDAY IN DAI NIPPON. 

holiday for all who are in Government employment. 
This has come about by the influence of European 
and American employes of the Government. Many 
of these, especially Americans, refused to work on 
that day. But these men are indispensable to the 
Government in this new epoch, and so this conces- 
sion was made to them ; but it has brought no Sab- 
bath to the people. In fact, it makes more business 
in some lines, especially with shop-keepers. The 
soldiers and other employes of the Government who 
have it for a holiday, do their shopping on that day. 
Indeed, the want of a Sabbath is one great obstacle 
in the way of the gospel. Already one of the most 
influential of the converts of the Methodist Mission 
at Tokio has been expelled for persistent violation 
of the Sabbath. He pleads necessity. The laborers 
he employs, he says, will not remain with him un- 
less he will give them employment every day. His 
customers come in to settle their bills that day, and 
will not come another day. His friends, he said, 
would forsake him entirely, and he would be ruined. 
But the missionaries felt that they must take a firm 
stand on this point, and although this was perhaps 
the most influential man they had received in all 
Japan, with one exception, they have cut him off. 

■ The one exception I speak of is a Mr. Tsuda, 
who lives in a suburb of Tokio. He is perhaps the 
most widely known of any private man in the empire. 
He is a scientific agriculturist, and under the new 
rigime, has charge of an experimental farm under the 
auspicies of the Government. He also publishes an 
agricultural journal, a monthly, in pamphlet-form. 
So wide-spread is his correspondence over the whole 



A SUNDAY IN DAI NIPPON.. 39 

Empire that he has to employ a private secretary to 
answer letters. 

• This man Tsuda puts out a sign at his gate every 
Sunday morning : " No business transacted here 
to-day. " 

He is the only private citizen of the Empire who 
has ever received any attention from the Mikado. 
His Majesty had him to dine with him one day, as a 
mark of appreciation of the great service he is doing 
in improving the agricultural condition of the coun- 
try. If he retains his simplicity of character in the 
midst of all the honors he is receiving he will no 
doubt be a very useful man in the young Church in 
Japan. 

Apropos of my Sunday experiences in Yokohama, 
I may add that the official members whose names I 
have given, gave me many tokens of affection. The 
last was very unexpected to me. When I was leav- 
ing them they were on the Bund, in a body, to bid 
me an affectionate farewell. I had time only for a 
few affectionate words, and then parted with them 
until the last day. Noble men ! — pioneers of the 
Church in a new Empire which the Son of God is 
just now invading ! I shall never forget them. 

I would envy these missionaries, if I would allow 
myself to envy anybody. -True, there are many 
crosses, many discouragements, many trials ; but 
there is no other field so glorious as theirs ; they are 
in the forefront of the battle, and see the advancing 
lines of occupation as the Lord of hosts moves on 
in the conquest of the world. 

I have said that the ground in this country is pre- 
pared for planting by the spade. It is not to be in- 



40 THE REVOLUTION OF 1 868. 

ferred that there is no plowing. A great deal of the 
ground is broken up by the plow, but a great deal of 
it, again, never sees a plow. And even when the 
plow has done its work the whole surface is gone 
over again with hoe and rake, so that the amount of 
labor is incalculable. The only plowing I have seen 
is with a single ox, hitched with ropes, the plow being 
small, and having only one handle. The fact is, as I 
have put it — human muscle is depended on for almost 
every thing, and there is neither labor-saving con- 
trivance nor the relief of any Sabbath. What a 
boon, even for this life, the gospel would be to 
Japan ! 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE REVOLUTION OF 1 868 IN DIA NIPPON. 

/OjCCORDING to the Japanese Mythology, the 
(4^ Mikado, or Emperor, is descended from the 
gods. The line of descent has been preserved 
with the greatest care, so that to this day the blood 
is pure and sacred. The Emperor, from the begin- 
ning, was absolute, ruling with God-given authority. 
Of course it came about in the run of ages that weak 



THE REVOLUTION OF 1 868. 4I 

men were born to the scepter, and nothing was more 
inevitable than that in such a crisis powerful minis- 
ters should come to be. the real rulers, and that fac- 
tions and wars should arise between ambitious rivals. 
To give an account of all the strifes and changes of 
the early times would require a volume. It is suffi- 
cient to my purpose to say that in course of time a 
powerful military chieftain became ascendant, and 
established himself as the recognized executive of 
the empire, taking the title of Shogun (pronounced 
Shong-un). But he ruled in the name of the 
Mikado, who was universally venerated as the sacred 
ruler. The Shogun, however, acquired such a hold 
of power as to make it hereditary. This state of 
things commenced, say, eight centuries ago — not to 
be accurate, for I have not the means at hand to 
verify the date — and continued, with the exception 
of a short interval, until 1868. But the Shogunate 
was not in the same family during this entire period, 
there having been several revolutions, changing it 
from one family of the great nobles to another. Three 
powerful families seem to have held it from first to 
last — the Taira, the Hajo, and the Tokugawa. 
lyeyasu, one of the greatest names, of Japanese his- 
tory, of the Tokugawa family, was at the head of the 
last Ime. He became Shogun in 1598, and organized 
the Government with consummate sagacity, on a basis 
that secured the tranquillity of the empire until 1868, 
a period of nearly three hundred years. The study 
of his policy will well repay the time of any one who 
takes pleasure in that sort of reading. 

During the period of the Shogunate the people 
became divided into several classes — a division which 



42 THE REVOLUTION OF 1 868. 

began to appear even earlier. But the principal 
division was between the military and other classes. 
The military class were called samuri, a title that has 
great significance in the present history of the coun- 
try. The samuri, or soldier class, was the product of 
the incessant wars of the early periods, and in course 
of time, if not from the beginning, it came to em- 
brace all the official personages of the nation, and 
was hereditary. The samuri blood was never con- 
taminated by inter-marriage with farmers, laborers, 
mechanics, or merchants. Indeed, the merchant, I 
understand, was held in greater contempt than any 
other class. 

The samuri were supported at public cost, on this 
wise : The whole of Japan was divided into dis- 
tricts, each one of which belonged to a Daimio — pro- 
nounced Di-me-o. The terriotory of some of the 
Daimios was very large ; others, again, had but a 
small domain. These Daimios were lords of the 
soil, and in the local administration were absolute, 
collecting such rents as they pleased from the land 
and the laboring classes. The samuri residents in the 
domain of any Daimio were his retainers, bound to 
respond to any call for military service, and depend- 
ent on him for subsistence. Sometimes the Daimios 
were at war with each other, and sometimes they 
were called upon by the Shogun to join him in his 
military enterprises. These enterprises generally had 
to do with rebellion in some part of the empire. 
Very rarely there was a little foreign embroilment 
with Formosa or Corea, or the conquest of some 
small group of islands. 

It will be seen that this was all much the same as 



THE REVOLUTiON OF 1605. 43 

the feudal system of Europe in the Middle Ages. 
The lord and his vassals were in nearly the same re- 
lations to each other, and the common people were 
taken no account of only as they could be taxed. 

The samuri always wore his sword at his belt, and 
was quick to take and to avenge an indignity. Much 
blood was shed among themselves, and as for the 
cringing laborer or farmer, he knew it was as much as 
his life was worth to offer any show of self-defense 
against the domineering demands of his armed and 
knightly oppressor. Accustomed to it from infancy, 
he no doubt believed himself to belong to an inferior 
race, and accepted it as a part of the constitution of 
things. 

But there was not always war, and especially from 
the times of the great lyeyasu to the present, peace 
had been the rule. The samuri were then an idle class, 
nor could the " standing army " be reduced to a peace 
footing, for all the sons of samuri were samuri, and 
their daughters were of the same class. Their sub- 
sistence was sure, but often rather scant. But they 
could resort to no ordinary avocation to increase 
their wealth. Many just lived in idleness, while many 
others devoted themselves to literature, and some be- 
came teachers. In this way a native literature has 
been maintained, and, as a class, the samuri are to a 
considerable degree cultivated, both in native and 
Chinese learning. It is not in any proper sense of 
the word, however, a scientific^ but only a literary, 
culture. Many have devoted themselves to the elu- 
cidation of their own history and mythology, and 
there is, I believe, a considerable extent of literature 
in the line of romance. 



44 THE REVOLUTION OF 1 868. 

The policy of the Shoguns was to keep the Mikado 
as an inaccessible sacred object, in whose name they 
could govern the people. He lived in voluptuous 
idleness, with every opportunity of sensual indul- 
gence. With no responsibilities to arouse a manly 
nature, and a precedent of ages to justify his indul- 
gences, he was a mere sensualist, enfeebled by ex- 
cesses, imagining himself a god superior to the vul- 
gar cares of life, and made of better stuff than other 
men. He was never seen but by the personal ser- 
vants of the palace and the higher nobles, and by 
thes-e last only at a distance, seated immovable in 
gorgeous robes, hung round by magnificent tapestry 
and canopied with gold. To the ear of the common 
people there came only rumors of the divine splen- 
dor of the son of the gods. 

But during all this time it seems that there existed 
a latent feeling in many of the Mikadoes that they 
ought to reign in fact as they did in name, and that 
amongst the samuri there was always a greater or 
less degree of restiveness under the power of a man 
who was only one of their ov/n class. In the long 
reign of peace, as literature was more and more cul- 
tivated, a knowledge of the earlier history of the 
country became diffused, and the feeling became 
wide-spread that the Shogun was a usurper. The de- 
sire to restore the Mikado to his rightful place as the 
actual Emperor — for he was always the nominal one 
— grew to be general and deep. 

It so fell out that the Government of the United 
States of America furnished the occasion of bring- 
ing on a crisis. The Shogun had for two hundred 
years kept Japan secluded from any intercourse with 



THE REVOLUTION OF 1 868. 45 

foreign nations. I believe there is a wide-spread be- 
lief that this had always been the case. Not so. 
Up to the beginning of seventeenth century they had 
shown no disposition of jealousy toward foreigners. 
That jealousy was brought about by the Jesuits. In 
1542 this enterprising Order entered the country from 
Portugal — at least the greater number were from 
Portugal — the very first was Loyola himself These 
missionaries met with marvelous success. They 
made converts by the thousand. They built churches, 
cathedrals, and monasteries. Several great Daimios 
being proselyted, compelled the people of their 
Daimiates to embrace the new religion on pain of 
banishment. The good fathers chuckled over this 
wholesale and bloody-handed dispensation of grace, 
and in the course of seventy years they boasted a na- 
tive Church of between two and three hundred thou- 
sand members, if my memory is correct. They be- 
came proud and insolent, and began to feel that the 
country belonged to them. They undertook to med- 
dle with public affairs. The Government took the 
alarm, but found that it could secure itself against 
their open or secret influence only by their expulsion. 
The policy of extermination was resolved upon. 
The priests were sent out of the country, thus hav- 
ing to take their own medicine. The native Chris- 
tians were compelled to recant. Thousands were 
put to death. It was one of the bloodiest and most 
effectual persecutions in the history of the world. It 
was supposed that the Christian name had been oblit- 
erated, but it has recently come to light that, after 
two hundred years, there were still several thousand 
who secretly held the faith of the missionaries. 



46 THE REVOLUTION OF 1 868. 

After this bitter experience with Christians, the 
Government became convinced that it could have 
nothing to do with Christian people with any safety. 
This originated the insular policy that prevailed for 
more than two hundred years. But when the 
western coast of America .became settled, and our 
commerce with the ''East by the way of the West " 
became an established fact, we found ourselves face 
to face with Japan. The advantages of an unre- 
stricted commerce with this rich insular region were 
too great to be overlooked. The Dutch had been 
allowed a little trading-post ever since the expulsion 
of the Jesuits. It was known that many curious 
articles were manufactured here, and that the possi- 
bilities of the tea and silk products of the country 
were very great. 

Accordingly, Commodore Perry, of the U. S. 
Navy, was directed to open communications with the 
Government of Japan, with a view to a treaty of com- 
merce. Accordingly, in 1 85 3, he steamed into the 
Bay of Yeddo, and opened negotiations with the 
Shogun, whose capital was at Yeddo, the Mikado's 
capital being at Kioto, two hundred miles away. In 
these negotiations the Shogun styled himself Ti-Kun, 
which foreigners wrote Tycoon, so that he became 
known to Europe and America by that pretentious 
title, Ti-Kun — the Great Ruler. The assumption 
of so grand a title by the Shogun, the affectation of 
imperial dignities, in addition to the usurpation of 
imperial powers, filled up the measure of the national 
discontent. The history is long and somewhat intri- 
cate. I cannot follow it. It is sufficient for my pur- 
pose to say that it all culminated in the revolution of 



THE REVOLUTION OF 1 868. 4/ 

1868, in which, after considerable fighting, the Sho- 
gun was defeated in a final and decisive battle at 
Yeddo, in which the Shogunate perished forever. 

The Mikado who had recently succeeded to the 
empire was a youth of only seventeen, isolated from 
his infancy from all affairs, and so both immature and 
inexperienced. But he was taken possession of by 
the men who had made the revolution, and he had 
either the good sense or the weakness to give him- 
self up to their direction. They are remarkable 
men — this is universally conceded. By their advice 
he removed his residence from Kioto, the nominal, to 
Yeddo, the actual capital, at the same time changing 
the name of Yeddo to Tokio, which means the East- 
ern Capital. 

But now the revolution was but just begun. All 
great revolutions are marked by significant coinci- 
dents. The concurrent advent of Perry, with the 
growing opposition to the Shogun, involved a great 
deal, only a little of which I can give in this chapter. 

To begin with : The restoration of the Mikado 
was coeval with the new problems that arose in the 
Japanese Government as incidental to its new foreign 
relation»s. The treaty of the United States must of 
necessity be followed by treaties with the various 
States of Europe. This involved the residence of 
Ministers and Consuls at the capital and the ports. 
It involved Embassies from Japan to the various 
courts of Europe and America. It involved, also, 
the opening of an active commerce; and all this 
involved the influx of new ideas. Indeed, the com- 
ing and going of steamships alone gave the more 
thoughtful Japanese a suggestion of forms of civili- 



•48 THE REVOLUTION OF 1 868. 

zation that were, at least in some respects, vastly 
superior to their own, and so already, before the 
revolution came, some of the more sagacious Daimios 
had sent young men from their provinces to America 
to be educated, some of whom returned about the 
time of that event, all full of the wonders of the for- 
eign civilization. 

Then came the necessity of organizing the Gov- 
ernment on a footing that would enable it to deal 
with other Governments. It must have an army and a 
navy, and it must have revenues adequate to all this. 
It must be able to concentrate its forces. It must 
have statesmen versed in international law. It must 
have every thing, in short, that constitutes a civilized 
Government. 

It would be impossible to introduce all these 
changes without having, sooner or later, a stable 
code of laws to take the place of mere personal gov- 
ernment, ruling the people by proclamations posted 
in public places. 

All this would involve the most radical changes, 
and the men who guided the revolution saw at once 
how inevitable and how difficult their task was. 

In the first place, the feudal system must be broken 
up. But this system involved the very organization 
of society. It would break up the samuri class, the 
proudest and most formidable class of people in the 
empire. The traditions of ages would be suddenly 
and violently broken in upon. But the matter was 
entered upon firmly. Many of the Daimios, seeing 
the necessity of the case, were forward to surrender 
their great dignities and privileges, and all of them 
acquiesced with a good grace. Perhaps it was the 



THE REVOLUTION OF 1 868. 49 

grandest instance in history of a privileged class 
giving up its position for the welfare of the country. 
The plan was that every Daimio should surrender his 
territories and revenues to the Government, receive 
a pension, and make his residence at Tokio, the 
capital. This was all done at once ; I believe it was 
in 1 87 1. These great nobles all simultaneously took 
leave of their retainers, and repaired with their fam- 
ilies to the capital, many of them voluntarily, and 
some, perhaps, because they were powerless to resist 
the movement of the majority. 

Then there must be an army created. The French 
model was determined upon, and French officers were 
imported to organize and drill it. A navy must be 
created, and who but the English could do that? So 
Englishmen were imported to do it. Railroads must 
be built, and the English were brought in to do that. 

No less important was it to improve the education 
of the people, and especially in the exact and prac- 
tical sciences, and Americans, chiefly, were called on 
for that. American text-books were translated, an 
American was placed at the head of the Bureau of 
Education, and on his suggestion a system of public 
schools was created, embracing the whole empire, 
and culminating in a university at Tokio, in which 
four of the leading Professors are Americans, and the 
instructions are carried on in the English language, 
the students having first to pass through an English 
school to prepare them for its classes. 

Now the whole empire is consolidated; all its reve- 
nues are administered by the central Government, 
which appoints the governors of provinces, and pro- 
vides for the internal police in every part, A written 



50 THE REVOLUTION OF 1 868. 

code of laws — the '' Code Napoleon," so far as it Is 
applicable — has been adopted, the army and navy 
organized, and a nascent system of education set on 
foot. Besides that, the Gregorian calendar has been 
adopted, only the era dates from the restoration of 
the Mikado, so that this is the year 8 instead of 
1876. But the year begins, as with us, and has the 
same division of months and even of weeks, for they 
have taken Sunday as a day of rest for all Govern- 
ment employes, though it is considered only in the 
light of a holiday, and is not in vogue among the 
people at large. 

Now, is not this a wonderful revolution to have 
been effected in eight years ? 

Is it permanent? What may be hoped for in the 
future ? I confess I do not know. 

It would be folly to deny that there are grave oc- 
casions of alarm, and it is scarcely possible that dis- 
content, and even open rebellion, should be wanting. 
Indeed there is grave discontent already. The tax- 
payers are ground down by a more oppressive levy 
than the rents they paid to the old Daimios. The 
Daimios measured only the land in actual cultivation, 
but the present Government measures the ditches 
and terrace-work, adding a good deal to the area. 
The tax, I was told, is five dollars an acre for rice- 
lands, and half that amount for all other. But it 
must have money to pay the pensions of the Daimios, 
and to buy ships for the navy, and to organize it and 
the army, and to pay high salaries to its foreign 
officers and teachers. These foreign employes are 
first-rate men, who would have high salaries at home, 
and who demand higher here, because they look upon 



THE REVOLUTION OF 1 868. 5 I 

this employment as temporary and of uncertain dura- 
tion. The Professors in the university have four 
thousand dollars, and teachers in lower schools from 
fifteen hundred to two thousand. I do not know 
what the officers in the army and navy are paid ; but 
the American Minister of Education receives ten 
thousand dollars. 

But many of these expenses are extraordinary, 
and they hope to be able to reduce the revenue in a 
short time. 

It is proposed also to compound with the Daimios 
for their pensions, paying them a given amount once 
for all and have done with it. Thus a heavy expense 
will be got rid of. But the Government is building 
railroads, which it owns and runs. This, it is 
believed, will be a source of revenue. It is putting 
up lines of telegraph throughout the empire. It has 
also bought a line of steamships from Yokohama to 
Shanghai. All this adds to its burdens just now, but 
it is hoped it will lighten them after a while. It has 
also organized and is carrying an extensive postal 
service. 

It is to be feared that this Government-ownership 
of a merchant-marine, railroads, and telegraph lines, 
may open the way to peculation — though I have 
heard of no rings as yet. The main trouble, so far, 
is, that coming all at once, it costs immense sums of 
money to get it on foot, and so involves oppressive 
taxation and discontent with the new order of things 
among the people. 

Then there is much discontent among the samuri, 
and they are a class not to be despised. " Othello's 
occupation is gone," and the samuri, heretofore fed 



52 THE REVOLUTION OF 1 868. 

from the public crib, and trained to no occupation, 
are really in a bad case. To be sure, the new army- 
is made up of them, as well as the very large police 
force in the cities, teachers in the public schools, and 
Government employes generally. The Government 
does all it can to find them employment. But still there 
remains a large number of them unemployed, and 
angry with the new order of things that has dealt so 
hardly with them. They are ready for stratagems. 
Already two efforts at rebellion have occurred, one 
very recently. The first was somewhat formidable, 
and the last was widely organized and well-con- 
ceived, but was discovered, by accident only, just in 
time to prevent a sanguinary, and perhaps disastrous, 
conflict. 

Besides all this, the Government is not settled 
upon any constitutional basis. If the Mikado should 
become dissatisfied with his Ministers, and appoint 
less capable men, or if he should die, and his suc- 
cessor fall under the influence of men inimical to the 
new order, and surround himself with a reactionary 
ministry, all of which may happen, no one can tell 
what the effect may be. But so long as the present 
Emperor lives, it is believed the present order will 
be maintained. He has changed all his habits, has 
adopted the European costume — a wonderful thing — 
appears in public, a still more wonderful thing, and 
either has very good sense, or is under the influence 
of men who have, and the friends of Japan are full 
of hope. The Mikado is young and in good health, 
and if God should give him health and long life, by 
the time his end comes the Government may be so 
consolidated as to be tolerably safe, and a new gen- 



THE REVOLUTION OF 1 868. 53 

eration, educated and prepared for it, may constitute 
a background of popular influence that will secure 
good government for-the generations to come. 

The Mikado took an oath when he came into 
power to introduce a representative system of gov- 
ernment. He has been reminded of this since, and 
seems altogether disposed to keep his pledge. But 
his counselors are of opinion that the country is not 
yet ready for the elective franchise, and intelligent 
foreigners, long resident in the country, are all 
of the same opinion. The masses of the people 
are scarcely better prepared for the ballot than 
the so recently liberated slaves of America. But 
the grand outlay of money and effort in the 
education of the people looks to a preparation 
of them for a popular form of government. It is 
hoped that Japanese already born, and perhaps even 
now in early manhood, may yet be in the Upper and 
Lower Houses, under a limited, constitutional mon- 
archy. If things go on as they have begun this may 
well be. 

There is one ground of apprehension as to the 
near future that I omitted to mention. Some of the 
Mikado's advisers, perhaps the majority of them, are 
looked upon by the powerful families who have been 
so long at the head of affairs as paivenues. They 
are new men and of obscure families. These old 
clansmen can scarcely bear to be put aside by the 
intruders. Nor is their influence to be despised. 
Perhaps it was at the bottom of the late rebellion. 

But, in any event, much that has been done must 
stand. It is impossible for the old feudal system to be 
restored. The spirit of progress is abroad. The 



54 FROM YOKOHAMA TO NAGASAKI. 

new ideas have taken root. Seed-thoughts have 
been scattered broadcast, and cannot die. They 
must germinate. Pubhc schools are taught in 
deserted pagan temples. This I have seen with my 
ovv^n eyes. The same is true of at least one Mission- 
school. America and Europe are in vital communi- 
cation with the country. The civilization of the 
nineteenth century is entering at a thousand doors 
and there can be no permanent, retrogression. 
Rebellion there may be, with bloodshed and violent 
displacement of men, but the new movement is a 
tidal-v/ave that will bear all before it. There may 
be breakwaters to check it for a. moment, but in the 
end it will overwhelm all that shall get in its v/ay. 
It is the product of irrepressible creative forces, and 
the issue must be a new Dai Nippon. 



CHAPTER V. 

FROM YOKOHAMA TO NAGASAKI. 

-__ EAVING Yokohama on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 

j we steamed down the east coast to the Bay of 

~"\, Osaka, and on Friday morning awoke at 

Kobe, having run a distance of two hundred and 



FROM YOKOHAMA TO NAGASAKI. 55 

forty-six miles, and succeeded in getting ashore in 
time to take the early train for Osaka. Here we took 
the ever-present jinrikisha, showed our team a paper 
with written directions to the residence of Dr. Gor- 
don, and the very sprightly trotters delivered us 
promptly at the right gate. Dr. Gordon is of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian Church, but is here under 
the auspices of the American Board. This Board is 
doing, indeed, the greater part of the work in this 
region. We had the good fortune to find, also, Dr. 
Adams, who is the medical missionary here. After 
a long and very satisfactory conversation with these 
gentlemen, we had tiffin with our host, who then 
accompanied us on a sight-seeing expedition through 
the city. The first place we visited was the castle, 
which is indeed the place of principal interest here. 
There is an outer and an inner wall, and then the 
citadel in the center. The outer wall surrounds a 
mound of considerable elevation, and is itself sur- 
rounded by a very deep and wide moat. The moat 
is walled with stone on both sides, the walls rest- 
ing against the earth, and the inner one rising 
many feet above the outer. The second line of 
defense, within this, and higher up the mound, 
consists also of a moat — which is now dry, however 
— and walls as already described. Then comes the 
citadel, crowning the summit of the mound. The 
works are all extremely massive, the stone being 
granite, and the walls very thick. I should say that 
with only the weapons of attack in vogue here three 
centuries ago, when it was built, these works were 
absolutely impregnable. 

But the most remarkable thing about them is the 



56 FROM YOKOHAMA TO NAGASAKI. 

size of many of the stones used in the walls. The 
length of one of these enormous blocks, as measured 
by a tape-line, was thirty-nine feet and more — near 
forty, in fact. We could not measure the elevation, 
as we had no means of getting up the wall; but it 
could not have been less than fifteen feet ; nor 
could we tell the thickness of it, as the wall 
stood against the earth on the other side ; but 
at the end of the wall we saw stones eight feet 
thick, and this was probably not less. Another 
one of these huge pieces of granite was thirty-one 
feet long, and we judged it to be not less than 
twenty, perhaps twenty-five feet high. It constituted 
the whole elevation of the wall at the place, and was 
probably sunk, by its great weight, several feet into 
the ground. These stones are dressed true on the 
faces, but the edges to which other stones are fitted in 
building the walls are of the most irregular contour, 
as no stone was wasted in trimming; yet the joints 
are made to fit closely, so that after the lapse of near 
three centuries the structure is about as solid as at 
first. 

The old question of Egyptian and Chaldean 
masonry must be repeated here. How were these 
great stones brought from the distant quarry, and by 
what contrivance raised to their places in this wall? 
The quarry is two hundred miles distant. It is said 
that they were brought by water, but the natives 
have now no vessel that one of them would not 
sink. It is suggested that several junks were lashed 
together; but, even then, how were they loaded? 
The mass is probably equal to Cleopatra's Needle; 
and the great English Government, commanding the 



FROM YOKOHAMA TO NAGASAKI. 5/ 

greatest amount of engineering- genius now to be 
found in the world, and the most massive ships that 
have ever been afloat, found the removal of Cleo- 
patra's Needle a difficult operation. 
• The citadel commands the whole city, and we 
should have had a magnificent view if it had not 
been cloudy and raining. But we could not stop for 
the rain, so we mounted our jinrikishas, and whirled 
off to the Normal School. The buildings are very 
neat, the situation commanding, and the grounds 
beautiful. It is another one of the many wonderful 
fruits of the revolution. I doubt if any nation has 
ever done so much in so short a time. But we 
could not go in, for want of time. Off we trotted to 
one of the two principal temples of the place, in 
connection with which is the Osaca Hospital. Into 
this hospital Dr. Gordon proposed to take us, that 
we might see the queer structure of the flimsy and 
rambling edifice. I could see no plan at all in it, 
and I gave the Doctor great credit for topographical 
sagacity in going through it, right, left, advance, 
retreat, in, out, up, up, and then returning by the 
same tortuous way. He made but one mistake. 
Opening a sHding door, we came upon a part of the 
temple where a Buddhist priest was preaching to a 
congregation of about two hundred people. We 
stood a few minutes listening, and I observed that 
occasionally the congregation responded. At one 
point we came out on to a veranda at the rear of the 
building, and found an open space of irregular area, 
not more than forty feet in diameter at the widest 
point, but which displayed a fine instance of the 
genius for landscape gardening, for which the 



$8 FROM YOKOHAMA TO NAGASAKI. 

Japanese are famous. There was an arrangement of 
walks, mound, shrubbery, and a Httle bit of running 
water, that was exquisite ; and, in contrast with the 
dingy back-buildings surrounding it, the effect was 
delightful. 

The hospital itself affords a good instance of the 
cleanliness everywhere seen in the houses of these 
people. We saw one of the wards in which there 
was but one patient, with three nurses to look after 
him. I believe, however, that they had several 
wards in charge, and only happened at the moment 
to be together in this room. The Doctor spoke 
highly of the general management of the institution, 
which he had visited a good many times. 

After that we visited the Dispensatory of Dr. 
Adams, the very cultivated missionary-physician of 
the American Board, where treatment and medicines 
are provided for the indigent natives. Here a sup- 
ply of Christian literature is kept on hand for distri- 
bution, and a room is fitted up for a reading-room 
and chapel, where there is preaching at stated times. 
This establishment pleased us much. 

Having seen and heard what we could command 
time for at Osaka, we took the four-o'clock train for 
Kobe, to meet an engagement we had made in the 
morning to dine with Dr. Berry, at half-past five. 
The Doctor, like Dr. Adams, is a layman in the ser- 
vice of the American Board, and is' in charge of a 
Dispensatory at Kobe, as the former is at Osaka. 
He is a member of the M. E. Church, is a scholarly 
and influential man, and has contributed to the 
advancement of civilization here in several respects 
— notably in being authorized to inspect the prisons, 



FROM YOKOHAMA TO NAGASAKI. $9 

with a view to Improve their condition, both in a 
sanitary and moral point of view. He m.ade an 
elaborate report to 'the Government, which was so 
highly regarded that it was published as an official 
document, and with that prestige, circulated through- 
out the Empire.. 

We were pained to find the Doctor and his wife in 
deep affliction, looking hourly for the death of an 
only surviving child. He is also under personal 
affliction of a painful character, being theatened with 
the loss of his eyes. He can bear only a very sub- 
dued light, and fears that he may even have to give 
up his work and return to America. Dr. Gordon is 
suffering a good deal in the same way. Dr. Berry 
does not attribute this to the climate in either case, 
but to nervous exhaustion from over-work ; yet it is 
true, and is notorious, that blindness is much more 
common here than in America. 

At Dr. Berry's house we met with the Rev. Mr. 
Atkinson, who is in charge of the Mission proper at 
this place. He invited us to attend the prayer-meet- 
ing at the Mission-school. This school is in charge 
of ladies sent out by the Board. It was night; but, 
so far as we could see, the building is spacious and 
well-arranged. Two rooms were thrown into one by 
means of sliding doors. The attendance was larger 
than I expected to see, both of men and women. 
Mr. Atkinson opened the meeting with singing, 
prayer, and reading a chapter from the Gospels, upon 
which he commented. The meeting was then left to 
take care of itself, which it did very well. One of 
the lady-teachers made a short talk, after which there 
was a pause — not long — then a native convert pro- 



60 FROM YOKOHAMA TO NAGASAKI. 

posed prayer, which he led, all kneeling. At the 
close of his prayer all remained kneeling, and, after 
a brief pause, another native prayed, and so on, until 
five prayers were offered before we arose. Then a 
paper was handed in by a man, a little talk was 
indulged in, and a vote taken by lifting the* hand. 
Then a little more talk, then a hymn, and the meet- 
ing was at an end. The paper handed in was a 
request of two members to be transferred to another 
Church more convenient to them, and the vote 
granted the request. I ought to explain that there 
are three or four Churches already organized in 
Kobe. The talk that followed the vote was occa- 
sioned by a statement of one of the native helpers 
that he had met with strong and determined opposi- 
tion in a neighborhood in the mountains where he 
and another had been endeavoring to establish 
preaching. The result of the conference on the mat- 
ter was the determination to press the effort to a 
successful issue. 

The whole spirit of this meeting was delightful, so 
much so, that though I could not understand a word 
that was said, I felt the effect of manner and tone, and 
that subtle something which you can neither account 
for nor misunderstand, the sense of a presence that 
is divine. 

It was now near nine o'clock, and at midnight our 
ship would weigh anchor. A servant with a lantern 
was sent with us half a mile to the Bund, where he 
bowed politely, and left us with the pleasant native, 
" Say-o-nara. " We called a boat to take us out to 
where our ship lay at anchor, and had but one phrase 
by which we could communicate with our oarsman — 



FROM YOKOHAMA TO NAGASAKI. 6l 

Mitsu Bishu But that was all we needed. A few 
minutes' easy sculling landed us at the foot of our 
ladder, and we were' soon in our berths, and in a 
few minutes fast asleep. 

Waking up on Sunday morning, we found our- 
selves in the famous Inland Sea, steaming vigorously 
ahead. > Unfortunately, the day was raw, the piercing 
north-west wind keeping us indoors nearly all the 
time. But we could not keep still, so varied was the 
scene. 

You are to understand that all Japan is of volcanic 
origin. The main Island itself consists of a back- 
bone of precipitous mountains of volcanic rock, with 
ridges straggling irregularly toward the sea, and val- 
leys of alluvial earth between, made of the washings 
of disintegrated rocks. Not over one-third part of 
the surface is tillable. Besides the main Island there 
are three others of good size, Yesso on the north, 
and at the south and south-east, Sekok and Kiusiu. 
Besides these, the small islands are numbered by the 
thousa7id. Of these a very large proportion are in 
this wonderful Inland Sea. This sea is the strip of 
water that separates the large islands of Sekok and 
Kiusiu from the main land. It is literally full of 
little islands, some of which are of a few miles' 
extent, and some only a few yards of naked rock, 
just jutting above the surface of the water. But all 
of them that are of any size rise precipitously from 
the water, or, at least, at a sharp angle, and you find 
yourself ghding through a wilderness of them 
throughout the whole extent of this sea, and even 
beyond it, out in the great ocean bordering Kiusiu 
on the west. 



62 FROM YOKOHAMA TO NAGASAKI. 

All Up the slopes of these islands, wherever there 
is soil sufficient to sprout turnips, it is terraced, and 
in cultivation. There are many little patches 
between ridges of rocks of apparently only a few 
square yards in extent, that are made to yield all they 
can to the imperious demand of an over-crowded 
population. Some of the mountain-sides are liter- 
ally covered with terraces and little bits of fields to 
the very summit, and on some others a straggling 
cultivation insinuates itself here and there wherever 
it can maintain an obstinate foothold among sur- 
rounding rocks. Some of them must be mere 
patches by which the fishermen supplement the pre- 
carious supply of the waters. It is amazing by what 
toil these people compel a scanty subsistence from 
the reluctant nature upon which they have been cast 
— for nature here seems but a beautiful step-mother 
whose heart is adamant, and who opens no generous 
hand to her foster-children. She seems to say to 
them all as they come, " Root, pig, or die." If the 
reader is not charmed with the elegance of this clas- 
sical quotation, I hope he will appreciate its expres- 
siveness. I can think of nothing else that comes up 
to the exact state of the case. 

' So straitened are the people for room that they 
select sites for villages apparently where the ground 
is unavailable for cultivation, and even the cemete- 
ries are located where they will not trench upon 
valuable soil. Not only is this the case here, but in 
the great valley between Kobe and Osaka we found 
the inner slope of a levee thrown up along a river to 
protect the fields from overflow, used for a burying- 
ground. Thus even the dead are crowded off into 



FROM Yokohama To NAGASAKI. 6^ 

unsightly corners to make room for the Hving. And 
all that care and labor can do to make the earth 
yield her increase is done. Every thing that can be 
used for compost to fatten the soil is saved and made 
the most of. Neither from the house nor stable is 
any thing allowed to go to waste. Any gill of stuff, 
no matter what, that will contribute to the larger 
growth of a few rice, or wheat, or cotton-stalks, is 
sedulously preserved for use at the right moment. 
Nor is any labor spared. Every clod is pulverized 
as if for an ornamental garden. Every weed is 
exterminated the moment it shows its head. We 
saw fields made where the soil had all been taken off 
for the grading of the railroad, and a new and excel- 
lent soil had been made. 

In this Inland Sea every island of one or two miles 
in extent has its villages, its cemeteries, its fishing- 
boats, and its little fields. On one, which we judged 
to be not over two miles, or at the most two and a 
half in length, and which at the highest point was 
at least five hundred feet above the level of the sea, 
I counted three villages. Its population could not 
have been less than one thousand on the side next 
to us, and what " was on the other side I do not 
know. 

The scenery is picturesque in the highest degree, 
but in early summer, when all the fields are waving 
with the growing crops, these hill-sides must be 
inexpressibly beautiful. Even now there are green 
fields of turnips and radishes to break the monotony 
and cheer the eye. Two crops, one of cereals and 
one of vegetables, are produced on the same land. 
Indeed there is often a crop of cotton or rice made 



64 FROM YOKOHAMA TO NAGASAKI. 

after one of wheat. The cotton is planted in rows 
between the rows of wheat — every thing is in rows 
as straight as a line — a month before harvest, so that 
when the wheat is taken off the cotton will be three 
or four inches high. If rice is to follow, it is in beds 
ready for transplanting, and so soon as the wheat 
is removed the ground is prepared and flooded, and 
the rice set out. 

The sea yields abundantly after its kind. Fish 
nowhere abounds more than in Japanese waters, and 
everything is eaten. I saw whale and shark meat 
in the market at Nagasaki — yes, and for that matter, 
an eagle ; and the old market-woman whom we ques- 
tioned as to the eating of eagles, gave an unmen- 
tionable reason why the men eat them. 

Thus the people compel reluctant nature, and 
manage to wring from the chary step-dame food for 
the millions that crowd her rocky bosom. 

So passed our Sabbath in the Inland sea, alter- 
nately reading the Scriptures and looking out upon 
the mingled scenes of natural beauty and human 
toil, unrelieved by any hallowed day. On them was 
the primal curse of labor, unrelieved by our blessed 
Sabbath light. How my heart yearned toward 
them ! O my blessed Lord, when will thy sluggish 
Church send its message of peace to every one of 
these villages ? 

After stopping once on Monday morning at a town, 
the name of which escapes me, we steamed out into 
the Pacific and rounded the southern point of Kinsin, 
all the while among thick islands, and on Tuesday 
morning awoke at Nagasaki. Soon after break- 
fast, Mr. Davidson, of the M. E. Church, came on 



FROM YOKOHAMA TO NAGASAKI. 65 

board, and as our ship was to remain here till mid- 
night, we went ashore, with him to spend the day. 
It turned out to be a rainy day, but we walked 
through the dirtiest streets we had seen in Japan for 
two or three hours. We saw many things that I 
cannot now describe. We saw the manufacture of 
tortoise-shell, which was perhaps the only thing done 
here which we had not seen in the cities farther north. 
There was another thing we took a moment's interest 
in. Passing along a street we heard a sound which 
I supposed to be that of some sort of simple instru- 
ment of music, but upon going in we found half a 
dozen men preparing cotton-lint with the violent 
vibration of a stretched cord, as I used to see hatters 
prepare felt for making hats. 

After lunch, in the pleasant family of our friend, 
we called on Mr. Mangum, the U. S. Consul at this 
port, to whom I had a letter from his relative, Pro- 
fessor Mangum, of the University of North Carolina. 
We spent a pleasant half-hour with him, and then 
took our leave of Japan. 

We are now fifty miles out on our way to China, 
but the ocean on our right is still strewed with 
Japanese islands, some of them quite extensive and 
populous. We hope to reach Shanghai on Thursday 
morning. 

3* 



CHAPTER VI. 

LIFE IN DAI NIPPON. 

IT WILL be difficult to convey to the American 
any accurate idea of the actual life of the people 
of this country; nevertheless, I will make some 
effort in that line. 

To begin with the houses: The first thing a for- 
eigner will notice is that the farmers live in villages, 
that the houses are generally only of one story, except 
in the larger towns and cities, where they are often two 
stories, the second being scarcely more than a half- 
story. They are almost invariably destitute of paint, 
both inside and out, which gives them a very dingy 
appearance. They are constructed sometimes of 
plank set upright, the edges fitting square against 
each other; sometimes of mud, supported by a frame 
of timbers, and sometimes only of matting. In the 
day-time almost the whole front is open, or else par- 
tially closed by sliding windows, which consist of a 
sort of thin paper, very tough and semi-transparent, 
which is pasted upon a sash with small squares. 
Often there are several frames of these sash, which 
slide back and forth, so that they may be entirely 
closed, or partially or wholly opened, at will. At 
night a sliding door is put in, outside of the paper 
window, and all is snugly closed. A floor covers 
only a part of the area inside, usually the greater 



LIFE IN DAI NIPPON. 6/ 

part, there always being a space inside In which there 
is only the bare ground. The floor is a neat plat- 
form about two feet high, and Is always covered with 
matting, except that often on the front edge there Is 
a strip of naked plank. This matting is always as 
clean as clean can be, and the naked part of the floor 
not only clean, but polished until It fairly glistens. 
The roof Is sometimes of thatch, very thick, often 
eighteen inches, with the edges at the eaves cut 
accurately upon a horizontal line, which gives it a 
very neat aspect ; sometimes of tiles, very heavy, the 
joints often covered with ridges of white cement, 
giving the roof a singular striped appearance ; and 
sometimes, though very rarely, of shingles, which 
are extremely thin, almost as thin as a very heavy 
shaving. 

In the houses there is no furniture — no table, no 
chairs, no bedsteads. The people sit on the clean 
mats, and be it known, no shoe ever comes upon the 
mat, these always being dropped on the naked piece 
of ground already mentioned. The shoe, as I shall 
describe hereafter, is so made that there is no diffi- 
culty in dropping or resuming it. In sitting down, 
they drop on their knees and then back on their 
heels, the ankle joint being bent so that the Instep 
lies upon the floor. Accustomed from childhood to 
this posture, the knee and ankle-joints seem to have 
become adapted to it. They sleep either on the 
naked mat, covering themselves with cotton-stuffed 
quilts, or at best have a quilt under as well as over 
them. As for eating, they either hold a dish In their 
hands, or set it on the floor, or on a little fixture no 
larger than a stool, and serving only for one person. 



6S LIFE IN DAI NIPPON. 

No Japanese house has a chimney. For fire, 
sometimes there is a square opening in the floor, 
and sometimes a brazier sitting on the floor. In either 
case the fire-bed is half filled with ashes, and the fire 
made of a handful of charcoal. I never saw a fire 
in a Japanese house made of any thing else, or in 
any other way. A few instances I saw of a separate 
fire under a shed for cooking, but as a rule the fire 
that warms their fingers cooks their food also. The 
bed of live coals is half covered with ashes, and it is 
astonishing how long one handful will last. On a 
cold day you will see the people hovering round 
the brazier and holding their fingers close down over 
the fire, and upon approaching you will find quite a 
degree of warmth within a few inches, but the gen- 
eral temperature of the room is not affected. 

In the towns, and even the large cities, the stores 
are mere shops, and very small at that. One country 
store in America will keep a stock worth a half- 
dozen of the average shops of Tokio or Yokohama. 
I saw a few exceptions — notably, the porcelain 
bazaar on the Desima at Nagasaki, the establish- 
ment that sent of its wares to the Centennial. The 
proprietor told us he sent over too much — more than 
his agent had been able to sell. Usually, one shop 
in the cities deals only in a certain line of goods. 
There are no great factories in Japan ; nothing is 
made by machinery ; and you will often see the man- 
ufacture of goods and their sale in the same house. 
We saw baskets, shoes, needles, tortoise-shell work, 
and other things, being made by hand in the shops 
where they were sold. The shops are very small, 
and have little back-rooms to accommodate the 



LIFE IN DAI NIPPON. 6g 

family, the wife often waiting on customers when 
there is a press of business, she being in easy call. 

A vast amount of hard work is done in a sitting 
posture. The blacksmith has his furnace very low, 
and his anvil sits, like himself, on the ground. I saw 
a number at their work in this way, and they v/ork 
very efficiently, too, seated on their knees and heels. 
Of course, there are some sorts of work that bring 
them to their feet, but the greater part is done as I 
have described. I have seen a carpenter sitting in 
like manner planing lumber, and sliding the board 
along instead of moving himself By the way, they 
handle their tools differently from us. Both in sawing 
and planing, they draw the tool toward thenty instead 
of pushing it. The saw is short, and becomes wider 
in the direction in which ours becomes narrow, ter- 
minating abruptly, or at a slight angle. The stock 
of the plane is not more than an inch and a half 
thick, and is grasped by the hands, having no handle 
at all. This mode of sawing and planing, drawing 
the implement towards you, is said to be very efficient 
when the sleight is once acquired; but I must confess 
it seems very odd to me. Nor are these the only 
things they do the wrong way. The tailor holds his 
needle stationary in his left hand, and wriggles his 
seam upon the point of it, working the cloth with his 
right hand. They also mount their horses from the 
right instead of the left side. I have heard it said 
here that they laugh when we weep, and do not 
laugh on the same occasions as we. But that is to 
be classed with the hasty and extravagant things you 
will always hear among foreigners. I have never 
failed to see them laugh heartily and spontaneously 



yO LIFE IN DAI NIPPON. 

at the very things which amuse us ; and they seem to 
me to be as quick to see the point where there is 
any fun. 

The costume of the sexes is the same, or was until 
foreign suggestion came in, which has effected some 
changes about the cities ; still the old style prevails. 
There is a loose garment, open in front, but lapping 
over largely, so as to conceal the person effectually, 
fastened around the waist with a sash, or girdle, and 
reaching to the feet. Over this there is another 
shorter garment, a sort of blouse, with large sleeves. 
This is generally left loose, though it is sometimes 
fastened about the waist by a belt. These garments 
are of thin cotton goods generally, but the well-to-do 
have them of better stuff, and if the wearer is rich, 
they are sometimes of very costly silks. 

Sometimes the cooly wears only the blouse, with 
a bandage about the loins, which does not always 
serve the ends of decency. The lower limbs, in that 
case, are naked from the hips down. I saw a good 
many instances of that sort, and before the advent 
of foreigners they were much more common. Since 
the revolution, the laws forbid the public exposure 
of the person — since that time, especially in the cities 
frequented by foreigners, there has been quite an 
innovation in the style of dress among the coolies. 
They have a style of pantaloons that fit as close as 
the skin — so that you wonder how they ever get out 
or in. But I discovered, upon close observation, 
that there was a slit at the ankle, and the edges 
lapped and fastened, perhaps by a stitch. This gar- 
ment I thought very becoming. As Dr. Anderson 
would say, the men seem as if they might have been 



LIFE IN DAI NIPPON. ^I 

melted and poured in. Over these the blouse is 
worn, and the effect is as becoming as any cheap 
dress I ever saw. A lady told me at Tokio that the 
whole suit of her jinrikisha man, breeches and blouse, 
did not cost above fifty cents. It was of blue cotton 
goods, and decidedly neat. This new style of dress is 
more worn among jinrikisha men than any other class 
of laborers, for two reasons : one is that foreigners, 
especially ladies, will not ride after naked lower 
limbs ; and the other, that these breeches do not em- 
barrass rapid motion as the long, loose garments of 
the natives do. This new style has the additional 
advantage of distinguishing between the sexes. 

In the native dress the chief distinction of costume, 
as between the men and women, is in the style of 
the hair. The men shave a strip of scalp, from the 
forehead to the crown of the head, from one and a 
half to three inches wide. Then the hair is combed 
up all round, and collected into a mass at the crown, 
being treated heavily to oil, so that it adheres and 
makes a round handful, which is turned back sharp 
and tied with a string, then turned forward sharp and 
tied again, so as to lie pointing forward on the shaven 
scalp, about midway of which it is cut off square. 
Nothing could be more arbitrary or unartistic. The 
women dress their hair in a much more becoming 
way, parting it in the middle, and making one or two 
round puffs on the back very smooth, and often quite 
pretty. But I have seen very few women here who 
would be called handsome, and the married ones 
make themselves unnecessarily ugly by shaving the 
eyebrows and blacking the teeth. To my eye it is 
really disgusting. 



72 LIFE IN DAI NIPPON. 

Neither men nor women dress their own hair, but 
even the poorest of them employ the professional 
hair-dresser. His services are in demand, however, 
only once or twice a week. They sleep with the 
neck resting on a small roll on a little block of wood, 
so that the hair is not disturbed, and the oil-dressing 
keeps it smooth several days. But now a good 
many of them are falling into the foreign mode, 
especially the men. 

The unadulterated native goes bare-headed, except 
occasionally a broad bamboo head-shade may be 
seen. Nearly all, however, are wholly uncovered. 

The Japanese shoe is a wonderful thing. It is 
sometimes a sandal, sometimes a clog. The sandal is 
made of wheat or rice-straw, and is much more dur- 
able than a foreigner would believe. Occasionally 
you will see them with a leather sole adhering to the 
underside; but they are generally all straw. The 
clog is a piece of board, cut the size of the foot, and 
elevated from the ground by other pieces of board, 
one near the heel and one near the toe, inserted tight 
in grooves, and glued. These pieces raise the foot 
two, three, and I have seen them as much as four 
inches. Both clogs and sandals are secured upon 
the foot by a cord coming up between the big and 
second toes and coming back over the sides of the 
foot. They are often worn on the bare foot, but 
sometimes with a short stocking, knit with a separate 
place for the big toe, like the thumb of a glove, to 
make a place for the cord v/hich holds the shoe in 
place. By a momentary movement the shoe is 
released from the foot, and it is always left off at the 
entrance of temples, churches, and school-houses. 



LIFE IN DAI NIPPON. ^3 

and in the uncovered space of dwellings, so that no 
dust nor mud is taken in upon the carpet, or, more 
properly, the mat. 

Would you believe that horses are shod with rice- 
straw ? Believe it or not, as you please, I affirm it, 
being an eye-witness — and not horses only, but oxen, 
too, for that matter. 

Only a few wealthy people ride on horseback. 
Often in the mountains men are carried on the 
shoulders of coolies, by a very simple contrivance ; 
and this was the case everywhere until the jinrikisha 
was introduced. There are no native wheeled vehi- 
cles, except a very rude sort of cart or wagon, all of 
wood, the wheels being made of two layers of plank 
nailed together, having a rim of a species of very 
tough timber. The jinrikisha is the invention of a 
foreigner, within the last six or seven years, and is 
believed really to have lightened the task of those 
who were accustomed to carry travelers. The Em- 
pire owes it to a missionary. 

You see children everywhere in swarms, and there 
is the queerest mode of carrying thern. The blouse, 
or loose upper garment of the nurse, is drawn down 
and back from the back part of the neck, making it 
very loose on the back, and it is then n;iade fast at the 
waist by a belt. This makes a sack into which the 
babe may be dropped on the back of its nurse. Girls 
too young for heavy work are put to this service. 
I have seen some who could not have been more 
than six or seven years old, cruelly burdened in this 
way. Often the old grandmother, and sometimes 
old men, are thus employed, and at Tokio I saw a 
boy ten or twelve years old with a baby on his back. 



74 LIFE IN DAI NIPPON. 

The women not unfrequently do out-of-doors 
work. At Nagasaki they assisted in coahng our 
ship. You often see them at the loom or wheel, sit- 
ting on the floor or a low stool, hard at work. I 
wish I could describe one of the looms, but I 
despair. It is very small, but used with great dex- 
terity. In fact, everybody that is big enough, and 
not too old, is at work, or engaged in the traffic of the 
country. I presume there are as few idlers as are to 
be found anywhere, and many are greatly over- 
tasked ; but they must do what offers, or else starve ; 
and, indeed, it almost seems the next thing to star- 
vation with the poor. They live on rice, fish, and 
vegetables — often on rice and vegetables alone, and 
it is said that the vegetables they use are mostly 
various species of turnips and radishes, very taste- 
less, and containing but little nutrition ; yet I believe 
there is no actual starvation, and they all seem to 
get sufficient to keep them in vigorous working con- 
dition. 

In the middle and southern portions of the Empire 
the country is about as thickly settled, it seems to 
me, as it will bear ; but in the extreme northern part, 
and particularly in the Island of Yesso, there is much 
excellent land that has never been appropriated. 
The inhabitants of Yesso seem to be of a race some- 
what different from those farther south, and are in a 
much more barbarous condition, at least in the 
interior. 

There are vsome beautiful traits of domestic life 
here, Filial duty is sai4 to be alqiost universal, and 
th© aathofity pf pafpntg i§ }iel4 sagred, Ispgeialiy 

i^ tli§ jnotheF hM fe ih§ highest ypnej^ypn^ ^4 i 



LIFE IN DAI NIPPON. 75 

son is never so old as to feel himself free from her 
authority. Marriages are contracted in deference to 
her wishes, and the married son often makes his 
home with his widowed mother, in which case the 
wife and all are under her authority. 

The class of abandoned women is very large, but 
the wife, it is believed, is almost always virtuous ; 
and it is not unfrequently the case that women pass 
out of the class of prostitutes to become wives and 
mothers. A woman who is the cast-off mistress of 
a foreigner seems to be at no disadvantage as to her 
chances of an honorable marriage. Young women 
who are in their homes are believed to be generally 
virtuous. But it is not unfrequently the case that a 
man straitened for money will sell his daughter to a 
foreigner to be his concubine, or to the keeper of a 
house of ill-fame for the most infamous life. What 
a blunted moral sensibility there must be where such 
a thing as that may be done in the face of day ! It 
is plain to me that there can be no high degree of 
moral feeling where there is no gospel. No form 
of religious belief but the Christian raises the sense of 
shame and of virtue to any thing like a normal state. 

It is not to be supposed that these people are free 
from domestic infelicity. It seems incredible to them 
that foreigners never whip their wives. A native re- 
cently asked a missionary at Osaka how in the world 
Americans managed to make their women behave 
without beating them. O women of my country! 
will ye not bestir yourselves to give these humiliated 
wives the gospel, to which you owe all your elevation 
and refinement ? 

One-half the money spent by the women of the 



76 LIFE IN DAI NIPPON. 

Southern Methodist Church for gewgaws would sup- 
port a hundred missionaries in Japan, How long, 
O how long, thou Son of God ! until thy Church 
shall be baptized with thy own spirit of love ? When 
will the day come when every man and every woman 
who bears thy name will come to the help of the 
Lord — to the help of the Lord against the mighty ? 
The Japanese are as capable of reaching the high- 
est type of Christian character as the European or 
American. Many beautiful traits of character appear 
among them — traits which show a very high suscep- 
tibility to noble impulses. They are polite, even to 
excess. Some of the most exquisite and delicate 
forms of intercourse mark their social customs. 
What among us can equal the phrase they use at 
parting, Say-o-nara ? The meaning of it is, '' Since 
it must be so." It shows an actual genius in this 
line — it is the very poetry of elegant manners. No 
doubt, there is a little hypocrisy in it sometimes, but 
then what form of good breeding is there that is not 
liable to that abuse ? 



CHAPTER VII. 

RELIGION IN DAI NIPPON. 

WHAT a man sees^ he can report with confi- 
dence, and no man can pass through this 
country without seeing temples and shrines 
and Images until his very eyes will be bewildered. 
St. Paul would have classed them with the Athenians. 
It is not to be- supposed that the temples are all 
great and costly structures. Far from it. There are 
a few such in the cities, but scattered through the 
country there are many that are mere shells, having 
no beauty, either of design or execution. Nor are 
the images all found in temples. There are a great 
many scattered by the wayside, generally, I believe, 
in connection with burial places. But very often the 
grave has disappeared, and the traveler will see 
nothing but the row of images. These exposed 
images are all small, at least so far as I saw, and cut 
in high relief on slabs of what seemed to be a hard 
sandstone, or gray granite. One thing I observed 
particularly — they were all old. I saw but one that 
looked fresh. They were in various stages of decay. 
I saw some more pretentious deities standing out in 
the neighborhood of temples, not in relief, but full 
figures, of the same material. Some were well pre- 
served, some with mutilated limbs, some with noses 
crumbled off, and some that had lost their heads. 



78 RELIGION IN DAI NIPPON. 

Truly, these gods are in a bad way, and if they 
represent the religion of Japan, it needs revamping 
beyond doubt. 

The primitive religion of the country was Sin- 
tooism. What this religion is specifically, I can 
hardly say. The word Sinto, or Shinto, means 
simply the doctrine concerning God. This form of 
religion still exists in the country, and has a good 
many temples. Its priests claim that they use no 
images in their worship ; but the only Sintoo temple 
of any note that I visited contained some life-size 
figures. The priests, however, explained to us that 
they were only statues of men distinguished in Jap- 
anese history. One invariable piece -of furniture is a 
large, circular mirror of polished metal. The one I 
saw was about three feet in diameter. This mirror 
commemorates a great event in Sintoo mythology. 
It seems that a very powerful goddess became 
offended on some occasion, and falling into a sulky 
mood went off and hid herself, whereupon great 
calamities impended, and I know not what extremity 
poor mortals were driven to, until they bethought 
themselves to place a mirror somewhere in a position 
in which the celestial beauty would come upon it 
unawares. The expedient was successful, for when 
she saw herself she was so delighted with her own 
beauty that she at once came out in the best possible 
humor with herself and everything else. 

A silly mythology of this sort makes up, so far as 
I could learn, the body of Sintoo teaching as it is 
current in Japan. It goes back to the beginning of 
things, when the first god and goddess were evolved 
out of the primary elements, and gods and goddesses 



RELIGION IN DAI NIPPON. 79 

multiplied, and out of their fecundity the family of 
the Mikadoes sprung, so that the Mikado is the rep- 
resentative of the divine presence on earth. It rep- 
resents that the whole mass of the elements was 
divided, so that one part constituted heaven and the 
other the earth, and that these were so near together 
at first that there was a bridge between them, over 
which the gods had easy passage back and forth. 
But the separation became greater, and the heavens 
lifted, until intercourse became impossible, at least 
on the mortal side, and the Mikado was the only 
divine object left below. All this the simple people 
seem to have taken with implicit credulity, and it 
certainly served the ends of kingcraft effectually, for 
to this day the Emperor is regarded with supersti- 
tious awe by the great mass of the people — so much 
so that when he goes out many of them conceal 
themselves, thinking it wrong to look upon his sacred 
person. 

In the sixth century of the Christian era Budd- 
hism entered Japan from China and Corea, and soon 
met with popular favor. But, in becoming naturalized 
in its new home, it became greatly modified in many 
respects. Indeed, not less than five or six great 
sects were formed, all differing in important respects. 
I have no minute knowledge of these modifications, 
and in this chapter I can speak of its general aspects 
only. 

The moral code of the Buddhists, In Japan as in 
India, is above gritieism ; but as a religion, both its 
tenets aa4 its practice ^.re evil ^a.nd pnly evil^ con- 
tinually ; a| fgafl in Itn Japanese developments, It 
1^ idojatro^p ^nd superstitious in |h§ }a§t degr^O; fij}^ 



80 RELIGION IN DAI NIPPON. 

many of its rites and superstitions are as silly as they 
are abominable. It has its images and shrines 
everywhere, and you would be astonished to see the 
similarity of it in many respects to Roman Cathol- 
icism. 

First, it is similar in its modes of worship. This 
similarity appears, in the first place, in the general 
fact that in both the public services are designed for 
dramatic effect. I happened to witness a service at 
the celebrated temple of Shiba, in Tokio. There 
was a sermon by the priest, which was followed by 
a service in which different parts were performed by 
various priests, some of whom were concealed in 
recesses, and the intoning, with occasional ringing of 
bells, of various sizes, and posturing and genuflex- 
ions, the whole of which was contrived with a good 
deal of skill, and appealed to the imagination in a 
very effective way. Besides this, there are many 
points of exact correspondence, suggesting that 
either the Buddhists or the Romanists must have bor- 
rowed, the one from the other, or both from a com- 
mon source. There is the '' holy water," used for the 
same purposes, and much in the same way; there is 
the burning of incense; there are the lighted tapers; 
there are the images and the prostrations ; there are 
the beads, and I know not what all. In the presence 
of these things you can scarcely keep from feeling 
that you are witnessing the carryings on of the 
priests of Rome. 

Nor has the popish priest a monopoly of purgatory, 
for his Buddhist rival manages this institution as dex- 
terously and profitably as he, and much in the same 
way, having his own methods of getting the soul 



RFXIGION IN DAI NIPPON. 8 1 

out of it — methods which he will ply with greater 
or less vigor, according to the amount of the fee. 
A man whose surviving relatives are sufficiently rich 
and liberal may have all the machinery put into 
operation, and get through quick; but woe to the 
trifling scamp who dies poor, and has no rich nor 
generous kin to come to his relief He must lag 
through the full period of his torments. So you see 
that purgatory is no richer source of revenue to the 
Roman hierarchy than it is to the Buddhist priests. 

Of course there are some superstitions that are 
pecuUar to the latter. There is, for instance, a wooden 
god in the temple at Asakusa, Tokio, who is sup- 
posed to have the power of healing diseases on this 
wise : the sufferer rubs his hand over that part of 
the deity which corresponds to the diseased organ, 
and then rubs it upon the seat of the pain. It seems 
incredible, but it is a fact, that by the mere friction 
of human hands this good divinity has had his nose 
rubbed down even with his cheeks ; the cheeks are 
worn flat; the forehead and brows have suffered no 
little, and there scarcely remains any trace of the 
eyes ; and my traveling companion remarked that, 
from the condition of another part of his body, it 
was evident that colic must be a prevalent disease in 
Japan. This fragment of a god I myself saw, and I 
saw several persons do the prescribed rubbing. 

At the entrance of the great temples there are two 
huge figures, generally of wood, one on each side, 
called the '' guardians of the temple." They are 
benevolent deities, though all that I saw had gro- 
tesque faces. One is supposed to welcome the good, 
and the other to repel the evil. Prayers are offered 



82 



RELIGION IN DAI NIPPON. 



to them after a singular fashion. The prayer writes 
his petition on a piece of paper, reduces it, in his 
mouth, to the condition of stiff pulp, which he makes 
into a ball, and this he throws at the prayee. If the 
ball sticks, the petition is favorably received ; other- 
wise, it is denied. Those that I saw had a great* 
number of these little balls adhering to them — in 
fact, they were peppered all over. 




SINGULAR GATEWAY BEFORE HEATHEN TEMPLES. 

(A gateway, similar to the one represented in the above illustration, 
stands in front of nearly every heathen temple in Japan. Its meaning is 
unknown.) 



There are one or more Sintoo shrines which are 
visited by people from all parts of the empire. I 
was told that poor people sometimes make £i journey 
of hundreds of miles ,pn foot, and upon arriving they 
cast %, few popper^ Into the treasurer-box of the 
,,^hnn0^ Thif l^'ff^i; :N9 other worship 13 offered^ 



RELIGION IN DAI NIPPON. 83 

but SO soon as they cast in their offering they return. 
In all the temples, so far as I saw or could learn, an 
offering of money, commonly a small sum, accom- 
panies every act of worship, but at these particular 
shrines it constitutes the only service rendered. 

It were, indeed, an endless task to describe the 
follies of this idolatry, and the reader would be out 
of patience with it if called upon to go through w4th 
the one-hundredth part of it. 

I have said that the moral precepts of the Budd- 
hists are above criticism, and no doubt there are 
some who are more or less influenced by them, but 
the general tone of morals is very low. Impurity 
abounds. A missionary physician, in charge of a 
dispensary, told me that he had a very large prac- 
tice, and that at least niiie-te^tths of all the cases that 
he treated were diseases which were the direct effect 
of licentiousness. He stated further, that in propor- 
tion to their numbers as large a proportion of these 
cases were of the Buddhist priests as of any other 
class. These priests, you will remember — and this 
is another point in the parallel already suggested — are 
celibates. Chastity, it may be safely said, is a virtue 
unknown among the men of Japan, and even the 
women, though many of them are free from actual 
prostitution, are restrained by causes very different 
from those supplied by the consciences of Christian 
women. That delicate inner purity which prevails 
in Europe and America, under the inspiration of the 
Christian civilization, is a fact unknown in the con- 
sciousness of these people. The vitalizing effect of 
the Christian faith and the ministration of the Holy 
Spirit, and these alone, can elevate human charactei' 



84 RELIGION IN DAI NIPPON. 

to that sensitive delicacy of conscience which must 
be the ground of all real chastity. 

But there seems to be no doubt that the old relig- 
ions of Japan are losing their hold upon the faith 
of large classes of the people. The temples are not 
thronged as they once were, nor are their revenues 
so ample. The influx of new ideas and the presence 
of foreigners have produced their effect. It has been 
observed that the presence of foreigners restrains 
many from their devotions in the temples, and some- 
times when they do perform any act of worship in 
the presence of a European or an American, that 
they may chance to be acquainted with, they explain 
and apologize. They seem to be conscious that the 
whole business is silly and worthless. Even on the 
occasion of a festival at Shiba, when great pains were 
taken to bring the people together, and a celebrated 
priest was officiating, the attendance was small, and 
a large portion of those present were priests. While 
yet the service was going on, we saw a priest in 
one corner of the house exposing trinkets, and when 
we proposed to purchase some for curiosities, he was 
very ready to sell ; and, more than that, he asked us 
if we did not desire to rent a house, as he had a very 
good temple to rent on easy terms. In fact a good 
many temples in Tokio are in use by foreigners, 
either for residence or business, and a Mission- 
school of the M. E. Church is domiciled in one. The 
public school we visited at Kamakura was taught in 
an unused temple, and, so far as I could learn, this 
state of things obtains widely, but more especially 
in those regions which are frequented by foreigners. 
Yet, no doubt, the great mass of the people are still 



RELIGION IN DAI NIPPON. 85 

sincere adherents of the faith of their fathers. But 
the revolution of thought is all the while spreading 
and becoming more extensive/ and it may be safely- 
said that the days of idolatry are numbered. 

What then ? Will the Christian faith be accepted 
in its stead? On this point there is ground of hope ; 
there is also ground of apprehension. 

The European and American civilization is uni- 
versally admired, and its superiority felt ; and, as has 
appeared in former communications, a great effort is 
now made, both by the Government and the more 
intelligent of the people, to introduce it. Along 
with this there is the conviction in the minds of 
many, that the Christian faith is at the bottom of 
this higher civilization. Along with this conviction, 
again, is the disposition to regard this religion with 
favor. But this all does not indicate any positive 
faith, at least not necessarily so, and there are no 
doubt many who are well-disposed toward Christian- 
ity in view of the worldly advantage which they hope 
to derive from it. Because it will make Japan great 
and prosperous, they welcome it, and it is believed 
that this feeling is entertained by many who have no 
real faith in its divine truth, and realize no interest in 
its saving mercies — many who, indeed, know little or 
nothing of its doctrines. But this favorable attitude 
of the public mind toward the Christian religion, it is 
hoped, will give its teachers access to the people, and 
serve as an open door, which, if the Church is true to 
her high calling, she may enter by effectual means. 
Thus, the responsibility comes upon the Church, so 
that if she fails the sin and shame must lie upon her 
conscience. 



86 RELIGION IN DAI NIPPON. 

The profound respect in which foreigners are held, 
as representatives of a higher civiUzation, also gives 
the missionary great power. In no nation of the 
East, perhaps, is this advantage realized in so high a 
degree. Foreigners are the professors in her great 
University, and teachers of many of her schools. 
Four or five of the professors in the University are 
ministers of the gospel, and others are earnest Chris- 
tian men. Some of them,^ however, are men who are 
not religious. 

The text-books in the schools are translations of 
American school-books, and one of the Readers gives 
a summary of Bible-history,, while in several other 
books there is such incidental and reverent reference 
to Christianity as cannot but give it a great influence 
with the pupils. 

To all this is to be added the fact that missionary 
labor has met with a greater measure of actual suc- 
cess than in any other field. It is only since the rev- 
olution that the field has been at all open. Not more 
than five years have elapsed since the first Church 
was organized, and only a very few have existed over 
two years. The greater part of the men in the field 
have come so lately as scarcely yet to have got suf- 
ficient mastery of the language for efficient service. 
Yet, even now, already one thousand converted 
Japanese have been brought into the fold, and a con- 
stantly and rapidly-increasing number of catechu- 
mens await admission. Many of the missionaries 
here are men who have had long experience in China 
and India, and with one voice they testify that they 
have labored in no field before which was so white 
to the harvest. 



CHINA. 87 

But let it not be supposed that the victory is won. 
The coaquest of an enipire to Christ is not the work 
of a day, nor the easy achievement of a thoughtless 
hand. The detail of labor and self-denial by which 
the millions of Japan may be brought to an intelli- 
gent faith and a state of godly discipline, is some- 
thing almost appalling. Every new convert must 
have all his ideas of life revolutionized. What a 
task even such a man as St. Paul had to reduce the 
Churches, made up of new converts from among the 
heathen, to a proper moral condition ! 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CHINA. 

WE HAVE been in China now five or six 
days, and have seen and heard what might 
fill a volume. In undertaking to communi- 
cate to friends the facts which are of principal inter- 
est, I feel oppressed by thQ consciousness that no 



88 CHINA. 

me. Several things conspire to render this impos- 
sible. No rapid survey of conditions so new can give 
a stranger the accurate knowledge which will secure 
him against mistake ; and if a writer blunders, he 
must, of course, mislead his readers. Then, what he 
sees is so unlike anything his readers know of, it 
i'S difficult to state facts so fully and perspicuously as 
to give a distinct and well-defined view of them; but 
I will do the best I can, and feel assured, at least, 
that my readers will have information that is as accu- 
rate as a stranger can gather. 

As our steamer approached the wharf, our eyes 
were cheered by the sight of Rev. J. W. Lambuth 
and his little son Willie approaching to welcome us 
and conduct us to their hospitable home. Mounted 
in the " trap," we passed up the Bund, crossed a canal, 
and trotted on until we came to the "tsunka-mook- 
ja," and found ourselves at the gate of the residence 
which was to be our home in this distant region — 
this strange world. Ah ! what an old-time, Methodist 
welcome was in the face and voice of our dear Sister 
Lambuth, as she greeted us on the veranda, and how 
fully has the first tone of the greeting been followed 
up from that moment of meeting until now ! Blessed 
be the name of God for all the sweet charities and 
endearments of Christian life and hospitality! Our 
Saviour promised to those who should forsake 
houses and lands and homes for the gospel's sake, 
that they should have a hundred-fold, even in this 
present time — ^fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, 
homes — and I hereby testify that he has kept 
his word to me. In America, in Japan, in 
China, he has made the promise good. He pur- 



CHINA. 89 

sues me with his mercies even to the ends of the 
earth. 

On entering China from Japan one is struck with 
the difference in several particulars. You approach 
Shanghai through the mouth of the Yang Tse river, 
one of the largest in the world. You feel at once 
that you are in the presence of a continent — not an 
island. In Japan you are confronted by bold moun- 
tains everywhere — here you see only a vast plain, 
elevated but a little above the level of the sea. At 
Shanghai, forty miles above the mouth of the river, 
the tide rises and falls several feet, so slight is the 
elevation of the land. The contrasts appear, also, 
in the first sight you get of the people. There is the 
most striking absence of the cleanliness of the Jap- 
anese. There even the coolies have the appearance 
of being washed, here they look filthy. There the 
little boats that ply about the harbor for chance jobs, 
tho-ugh innocent of paint, are scoured every day, and 
have the inviting aspect of cleanliness — here they 
are dirty-looking, though some are painted. Here 
the clothing of many of the laborers is a mere mass 
of rags — while there the poorest, even if only half- 
clad, show an aspect of neatness in the scant gar- 
ments they have. 

But the contrasts are not all in favor of the Japan- 
ese. Many of the native boats are larger and of a 
better class than any you see in Japanese waters, and 
many of them are painted. But they have a foolish 
practice of painting an eye on each side of the bow 
of the boat. They say it could not see how to go 
without this. Whether this is a superstition, or a 
mere fancy and fashion, I am sure I do not know. 



90 CHINA. 

The foreign settlements are larger and more sightly 
than at Yokohama. Many of the business houses 
are massive and imposing. 

As for the native city, what shall I say ? There is 
nothing like it in Japan. After all I had heard and 
read of Oriental cities, this one had the advantage of 
absolute novelty to me on first sight. I had been 
betrayed into the expectation of finding all the 
houses here as low as those in the great cities of 
Japan, and did not think but that the streets would 
be about the same width ; for those were narrow 
enough in all reason. The houses, indeed, are not 
very much higher here, but the streets are so exces- 
sively narrow as to make them seem so. Even the 
principal streets are not above eight or ten feet wide, 
and in many of them a man can stand in the middle 
and touch the houses on both sides. Imagine a 
great city with all its going and coming in such 
thoroughfares. Even in the foreign concessions, out- 
side of the walls, where the streets are much wider — 
though still very narrow to the eye of an American 
— the crowd is such that it is a task to get along. 
You are to remember that there are no vehicles pos- 
sible in those crowded ways — that is, I mean in the 
walled part of the city. Every thing is borne on 
men's shoulders. All the goods that are sold, all 
the food that is eaten, all the water that is used, 
all the garbage and offal that are removed, are borne 
by men. If the burden is very great i-t is suspended 
from a bamboo-pole and carried by two men. 
Smaller weights are carried by one man, two buck- 
ets, boxes, or whatever it may be, being suspended, 
one upon each end of the pole, which is balanced 



CHINA. 91 

upon the shoulder. Thus the entire local transpor- 
tation of a great city Is .carried on. The cargoes of 
great steamships and of Innumerable junks are dis- 
tributed in this way. Even in the wider streets of 
the concessions there Is no vehicle larger than the 
wheelbarrow, propelled by one man, though for- 
eigners drive around in traps drawn by one horse — 
occasionally by two. The jinrikisha has been intro- 
duced, also, from Japan ; but the heavy work is done 
by overloaded men. Here, as In Japan, human mus- 
cle is the most abundant and cheapest thing In the 
market. 

Every " trap " has a coolie perched behind, and 
keeping a lookout ahead, to shout to the crowd, 
warning them of danger, yet the driver trots ahead — • 
and the wonder of wonders to me Is that people are 
not run over. The pedestrian has to be constantly 
on the dodge to keep out of the way of traps, jinriki- 
shas, and wheelbarrows, and they often brush his 
clothes; but mine host assured me that he had never 
upset a man yet. There are two standing miracles 
in the world — one is that any boy lives to be ten 
years old, and the other that men traverse the streets 
of a Chinese city without getting their necks broken. 
But within the walls of the city there are no traps, 
jinrikishas, or wheelbarrows — there Is no space for 
them — and very rarely a man on horseback or don- 
key-back — still, progress Is only a series of dodges.- 
You dodge those you meet every two steps ; you 
dodge to get ahead of slow walkers ; you dodge the 
heavy loads that dangle from the bamboo-poles, 
many of them being open buckets brimful of the 
most offensive slops ; you dodge the sedan chairs, 



92 CHINA. 

and thus literally wriggle along the streets. I always 
experience a sense of relief when I get indoors again, 
and find myself out of the hubbub. 

The Chinese, like the Japanese, propel their small 
boats by sculli7tg, instead of rowmg. The skill of 
the Japanese in this interested me much, but the 
Chinese excel them, having a more efficient method. 
There is a rope attached to the upper end of the oar, 
and at the other extremity to the side of the boat; 
and while one hand grasps the oar the other aids the 
stroke by pulling backward and forward upon the 
rope. The force with which they move forward is 
something wonderful. We crossed a considerable 
river, in which the tide was running out with 
a pretty strong current, with eight passengers, and 
one man to work the oar. We crossed at a slight 
angle against the current, and the little craft actually 
made a bee-line to the point of landing. I am cer- 
tain that if it had been a skiff, with two men to row 
it, it would have yielded perceptibly to the force of 
the stream. Another thing that surprises me about 
this sculling is the accuracy with which a man, with 
only one oar, worked backward and forward at the 
rear end of his boat, can direct its course. He drives 
to his point within a hair's-breadth. The Orientals 
do some things better than we. 

But oh, the filth of a Chinese city ! The smells ! 
the smells ! the smells ! Ugh ! I have no such 
mastery of language as will enable me to do 
justice to this subject — but if I had I would not 
attempt it, for a civilized man would have to hold 
his nose to read it. 

We have just returned from a trip to Ningpo. 



CHINA. 93 

The ''we" of my letters always Includes Mr. Hend- 
rix, and in this instance it includes also Mr. Parker, 
of Soochow. We were led to make this visit partly 
on account of the celebrity of the wood carvings of 
that place, but mainly because it is one of the oldest 
Protestant Mission-fields in China, having been occu- 
pied now, by the Presbyterians and Baptists, for some 
thirty-two or thirty-three years. We had an elegant 
steamboat, belonging to a native Chinese company. 
These boats, by special order of the company, take 
all ministers of the gospel at half-fare. What think 
you of that for a company of heathen steamboat 
owners? The captain, an Am.erican, was a most 
delightful gentleman, who made our trip as agreeable 
as possible. The Rev. Mr. Leyenberger, of the Pres- 
byterian Mission, met us the moment the boat landed, 
and took us to his home for breakfast, where we met 
Mr. Butler, his colleague. These gentlemen, first 
one and then the other, devoted themselves t«o us 
during the day, and their kindness was as hearty 
as it was serviceable ; for through them we were 
enabled to make the most of the one day we had for 
this place. Here, for the first time, we were taken 
into a ''tea-hong," where they were preparing tea for 
the foreign market — that is, ruining it. It is sub- 
jected to a degree of heat as high as a man can bear 
his hand in for a short time ; for which purpose it is 
put into iron vessels over furnaces. While in this 
process of heating it is stirred actively by men's 
hands, the man changing from one hand to the other 
at short intervals, the heat being too great to be 
borne long even by those accustomed to it. Into 
these vessels a handful of coloring matter is cast. 



94 CHINA. 

consisting of — what ? I do not know what all. Prus- 
sian blue, we were told, enters into the compound, and 
with our eyes we saw indigo being pulverized for this 
purpose. I have never relished tea in America, and 
I think I shall never drink it there again. Here in 
China, where it is used pure, it is a delightful bever- 
age. If I can't get it without indigo hereafter I 
think I shall not take it at all. You can get no re- 
spectable Chinaman to drink it after it has been doc- 
tored for the foreign market, and I feel altogether 
disposed to class myself with intelligent Chinamen 
on the tea question — that is, as to the tea itself — but 
for the water they use here in making it — excuse me. 
All the water the natives use in Shanghai — and I 
suppose in all other cities of the level parts of the 
country — is taken out of the canals. Come with me 
a moment to the bank of the canal. Do you see the 
mouth of that sewer pouring its filthy contents into 
it? Just below see that woman v/ashing the foulest 
vessel. Below her there is a man washing his face 
and hands, the first time, may be, for a week. Below 
him, again, a man is dropping two buckets into the 
water, the buckets suspended, one from each end of 
a bamboo-pole. His buckets filled, he balances the 
pole on his shoulder and trots off along the narrow 
streets. Where is he going? To some Chinese gen- 
tleman's house, bearing the supply of water for cook- 
ing, making tea, drinking, and all other purposes for 
which water is used. For these domestic uses all 
foreigners save the water from their roofs, preserving 
it in huge earthen jars ; but the natives, high and 
low, depend on the canal for all purposes. So deli- 
cately cultivated is the celestial palate ! 



CHINA. 95 

In Ningpo we took tiffin, at one o'clock, with the 
Rev. Robert Swallow, missionary of the United 
Methodist Free Churches of England. He is a 
young man, and with him and his excellent wife we 
spent a most delightful hour. . They are devoted to 
their work, and happy in it. What a delightful spirit 
of intelligence and piety was in the atmosphere of 
this English home in the heart of the walled city 
given so to idolatry ! 

We called, also, on Dr. Lord, of the Baptist 
Church, who is also the American Consul at Ningpo. 
We found him engaged in consular duties not of the 
most pleasant character, but he received us with the 
cordiality we have met with from the missionaries of 
all the Churches. He has a Mission-school for girls, 
and we learned one fact with peculiar satisfaction — it 
has been an inflexible rule of this school to require 
the girls to unbind their feet. In the outset this was 
in their way — the girls educated there could not be 
married because of the prejudice against women with 
big feet; but public opinion has been so completely 
conquered that the girls from the school have as fair a 
chance for honorable marriage and settlement as any. 
This is looked upon by all the missionaries as a 
wonderful instance of progress. 

Having purchased a few choice specimens of the 
famous Ningpo wood-carving, we repaired to our 
boat, where we found the brethren present to take 
leave of us, and we parted from them after an 
acquaintance of a few hours, with regret, ready to 
say, with the Japanese, in good earnest, " sayonara " 
— " since it must be so." 

What I have said sibout the filth of Chinese cities, 



96 CHINA. 

and the stench that greets the nostrik almost every- 
where, may lead to the inference that my estimate of 
the Chinese is very low in every respect ; but this 
would be a great mistake. In many respects they 
are a great people, and they are certainly capable of 
the highest development. If Chinese life can be 
revolutionized in a few vital points, the grandest 
results must follow. I shall have a good deal to say 
on this subject hereafter. 

Returning from Ningpo, we found ourselves at 
ho7ne again in the charming family of Brother Lam- 
buth, where nearly all the missionaries met us in 
the evening. As in Tokio, so here, they have a 
meeting once a month, in which they take tea and 
worship God together, and then discuss some topic 
connected v/ith their work. The topic for this eve- 
ning was, *' The discouragements and encourage- 
ments of the work in China." It was a grand oppor- 
tunity for gaining insight into the real state of affairs, 
and was worth a month's observation in ordinary cir- 
cumstances. The discussion was perfectly free and 
independent, and evinced just that agreement in 
essential points, and that diversity in many respects, 
that was most refreshing. Like the Conference at 
Tokio, it gave us an exalted opinion of the character 
and capacity of the men in the field here. Certainly 
the Churches have sent men of a high average, and 
God has put his seal upon them. 

The Mission has two Quarterly Conferences, one 
comprised of the missionaries and native helpers, and 
the other of the missionaries alone. The latter is 
called the English Conference, for the reason that its 
minutes are kept in the English language. These 



CHINA. 97 

Conferences vv^ere both in session. The recommend- 
ation of the preacher^ for orders was made in the 
EngHsh Conference, of course, and made regular 
matter of record. The native Conference, including 
all the six helpers, with Mr. Hendrix and myself, 
were taken together in photograph, for we could not 
but feel that there was an historic importance con- 
nected with it that would give high interest — to ils 
at least — to such a memorial of it. The event is an 
epoch in the history of the Church in China. It is 
felt to be so here in several respects. 

1. It brings them into conscious and actual sympa- 
thy with the Church at home. In the United States, 
with all the machinery of the Church in perfect or- 
der, and in the midst of those habitual fellowships 
which give a support and courage that are so con- 
stant as to escape our thoughts, it will be impossible 
to realize the value and significance of an official visit 
here. To the missionaries it is the assurance of a 
thoughtful care on the part of the brethren from 
whom they are so far removed, and to the native 
Church it brings the fellowship of a distant people to 
whom they owe all the knowledge of God they have, 
into a form of expression that makes it near and real. 

2. It raises the organization of the Church here 
out of an inchoate condition, and advances it toward 
completeness. Several native preachers can now 
baptize their own converts, and some can administer 
the holy communion, and so become pastors in the 
fullest sense of the word. Still their work will be 
held under the constant oversight of the superintend- 
ent, whose authority, as the representative of the 
Church, they feel to be supreme. 



98 CHINA. 

3. As a sign of progress, it gives the inspiration of 
hope, and this is a source of power that can scarcely 
be overrated. 

For myself, I believe I never felt the grandeur of 
the kingdom of God so fully before. It is just now 
collecting its energies for the final campaign in the 
conquest of the world. The advance lines of the all- 
conquering host front the enemy where he is massed 
in his greatest strength, and intrenched in his most 
formidable defenses. The powers of darkness are 
enthroned, but the God of light already advances 
upon them, and they begin to be aware of the glory 
of his approach. No human destiny can be greater 
than that of participating in the labors and dangers 
of the deepening combat. It may involve martyr- 
dom — I doubt not it will — but that blood which is 
shed for Christ is most precious in his sight. O Son 
of God ! is it not a joy to die for thee? 



CHAPTER IX. 

ORDINATION OF THE NATIVE HELPERS. 

y_/HE great object of my visit to our Missions in 
I China was to ordain the native helpers — such 
of them as might be considered worthy of such 
a trust. The occasion was one of very great interest. 
The native preachers, together with Mr. Parker, from 
Soochow, were brought down to Shanghai, and the 
rehgious services were opened by singing one hour, 
on Friday morning, commencing at 9 o'clock. At 
half-past 10 there was a prayer-meeting, led by Dsau. 
The business-meeting of the missionaries was held at 
half-past 3 p. M., at which the following persons were 
recommended for deacon's orders : Dsau, Dzung, 
Yung and See; and Dsau and Dzung were recom- 
mended for elder's orders. 

In the evening, at 7 o'clock, there was preaching 
to the natives in the chapel, by the Rev. J. W. Lam- 
buth. The text was John xiv : 26. It was an exhor- 
tation to seek the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, es- 
pecially in view of the solemn service of ordination, 
to which some of the preachers were looking. At 
half-past 8 there was preaching to foreigners, in the 
Temperance Hall, by the writer — text, John xv: 1-8; 
subject, life and fruit-bearing in Christ. The native 
congregation was large and attentive — the foreign, 
fair for a week-night. 



100 NATIVE HELPERS. 

Saturday morning was devoted to fasting, with a 
prayer-meeting at half-past lO. In the afternoon the 
native Quarterly Conference was held. 

I counted it a special mercy of God that at this 
time all the missionaries and native helpers, in con- 
nection with our Mission, were in health and permit- 
ted to be present. All felt the occasion to be one of 
great moment. 

The programme of business was the usual one, as 
follows : 

With what number of members did the quarter 
end ? 

How many have been added during the quarter? 

Are there any probationers ? 

How many schools have you ? 

How many scholars? 

How many scholars in Sunday-school ? 

How many persons do you preach to each day? 

How many times do you preach each month? 

Do you preach any on the street? 

How many books have you sold? 

How many books have you given away? 

Do you visit from house to house ? 

Have you collected any missionary-money? 

This finished, I propounded some questions as to 
the spirit and method of their work, and then inade 
a formal address to them, on the vital relation they 
sustain to the work in China, having the foundation 
to lay for all time to come. I reminded them that 
they, the first laborers, would type the Church for 
coming ages, and that the work would partake largely 
of the personal character of the \vorkmen„ I urged 
them not to be content with a merely blameless life, 



NATIVE HELPERS. lOJ 

but to aim at holiness — the highest blessing, the rich- 
est fruit of the Spirit. Mr. Lambuth interpreted. 
This was followed by an address from Mr. Allen, who 
was so broken down by his emotions that it seemed 
as If he could never bring his first sentence to the 
point of utterance. His words penetrated me so that 
I felt, as I had never before done, the peculiar trials 
of our brethren here. Here, for years and years, 
these two men, Lambuth and Allen, had been stand- 
ing together in this vast empire, eight thousand miles 
removed from their brethren, the sole representatives 
of their Church in the Eastern hemisphere, conscious 
of an imperfect sympathy at home. Recently they 
had been re-enforced by the arrival of Mr. Parker, 
which they had accepted as the augury of a larger 
movement. And now the heart of the home Church 
touched them in living fellowship through the pres- 
ence of one of the Bishops and of a brother, volun- 
tarily visiting them. The fountains of the great deep 
were broken up. 

The following is the substance of Mr. Allen's ad- 
dress : 

" I have inexpressible pleasure in this hour. As 
Simeon of old waited for the promised consolation 
of Israel, so have we waited, in long patience and 
prayer, for this event — to-wit : the coming of our 
chief pastor, and the setting apart of these native 
brethren to be ordained unto the ministry of God in 
China. Thank God, my eyes have seen it ! But 
where are my predecessors in this work — Jenkins, 
Taylor, Cunnyngham, Belton, Kelley, Lambuth and 
V/ood — who also as earnestly desired and prayed for 
this consummation of their labors? Gone — all gone 



I02 NATIVE HELPERS. 

from our midst, save one — our worthy, and I had 
almost said; our venerable Superintendent. 

" Brother Lambuth — I sincerely congratulate you 
and your noble, heroic companion, on the joy of this 
hour. Your long, faithful, devoted, earnest, persever- 
ing, patient labors have been crowned at last. You, 
sir, received me cordially, on my arrival in China, and 
it was by you that I was introduced to the missionary 
field and missionary labors. That is now nearly 
seventeen years ago, and I feel it becoming in me, and 
due to you, beloved Bishop, to bear for him this tes- 
timony of admiration and praise. He has always 
been a zealous missionary— preaching constantly, in 
season and out of season ; indefatigable in promoting 
schools and instructing the young. The poor have 
ever found in him a friend, while his house has always 
been open to the wayfaring missionary, of whatever 
Church, nationality, or denominationo But that is 
not all. Latterly, as Superintendent, the burden of 
the work has rested heavily upon him. You have 
heard his reports. The preachers, teachers, and 
Bible-women, the schools, congregations, and sta- 
tions, all look to him for instruction and management; 
books, tracts, and hymns have to be prepared and 
published. Yet, sir, all these things are required of, 
and done by, one man. Is It any wonder that his 
health, which was never robust, should quake and 
fail under such a load of cares ? Yet, appalling 
and laborious as is the situation, our worthy Su- 
perintendent has never faltered — neither in his faith 
nor in his labors. What a lesson to the Church! 
And I appeal to you, beloved Bishop, and through 
you to every Southern Methodist heart in Amer- 



NATIVE HELPERS. . IO3 

ica, to say whether this state of things shall con- 
tinue. 

" We are all here, in this Conference— our numbers 
are feWo "V ou could take us all away in the compass 
of a photograph. But, sir, our hearts are large, and 
brave, and loyal; and we form, as we trust, the 
nucleus of that greater Conference which we hope ere 
long to see assembled to transact the business of a 
Mission, whose bounds have been enlarged, and 
whose labors have been abundantly owned of God in 
the conversion and salvation of souls. 

" I repeat it — ^I have inexpressible joy in this hour, 
and devoutly thank God, beloved Bishop, that he 
has spared you and your companion. Brother Hen- 
drix, to come to us in these ends of the earth, as the 
messengers of love and of God's grace. Your visit 
has cheered and encouraged us, and this baptism of 
tears is as the refreshing of the Lord. Glory be 
to God ! " 

At the close of this address Mr. Lambuth rose, 
and, with extreme modesty and propriety, gave all 
the praise to God. Then my companion, Mr. Hen- 
drix, unable to resist the hallowed impulses of the 
hour, found himself on his feet, pouring out a torrent 
of tenderness and blessings upon these representative 
men of the Church in China. A pause followed, 
which might be likened to a moment of rapturous 
silence in heaven — when one of the native helpers, 
Mr. Yung, rising, stood speechless for a time, bathed 
in tears, and at last gave utterance to two explosive 
sentences of thanksgiving, with a long interval of 
silence between, and then could say no more. Mr. 
Dsau (C. K. Marshall) followed, speaking in English ; 



104 NATIVE HELPERS. 

there were more tears than words. The scene was 
closed by the long-meter doxology, sung in unison 
by nine voices in Chinese, and two in English ; and 
the East and West were mingled in praises to the 
Maker of us all, while the volume and tone of the 
melody were just like the triumph of worship in a 
Conference at home. 

This was a new experience of the brethren here. 
There ha.d been no such occasion before, in all their 
history, and no such breaking up of the fountains of 
love and sympathy. Oh, if the Church at home could 
only be put into vital sympathy with these men, in 
less than five years there would be twenty recruits 
in China ! If every one who loves the Son of God 
in truth could see what I have seen here,- the silver 
and gold, which are the Lord's, would be cast with 
eager hands into his treasury for the salvation of this 
vast Empire, and prayer, agonizing prayer, that the 
salvation of God might be known among the heathen, 
would rive the heavens continually. All the Church 
needs is a just knowledge of the facts. Brethren, 
think! Four hundred millions of immortal souls 
in China are perishing in their ignorance. They 
are under the dominion of Satan. Blood-bought 
souls, for whom Christ died, are led captive by the 
devil at his will, and for their relief and salvation 
three-quarters of a million of Methodists support 
two missionaries and six native helpers. Hundreds, 
perhaps thousands, of men and women who look to 
Christ for salvation, and profess to love him above 
their chief good, will read this to be reminded that 
they have done nothing to spread the knowledge of 
His name among those who sit in darkness and in 



m 




4!lil|l|!||k 






WW 



^WJ^SMt.. " ; '^'Siu?: 



;^Li 



NATIVE HELPERS, IO5 

the shadow of death. On Saturday night Brother 
Yung preached to a crowded house, and, I think, 
with good effect. 

Sunday was a high day. The love-feast was opened 
at 9 o'clock, and was an occasion of much interest. 
The tide of feeling was not so high as in the Quar- 
terly Conference already described, and there was 
a little hesitancy at times, though very little time 
was lost, and the peace of God ruled all hearts. At 
my request, Mr. Parker mxade a synopsis of the 
experience of several of the brethren, which will 
give you an idea of the substance, but not of the 
spirit, of what was said. The spirit could not be 
known except in hearing their voices and seeing 
their faces. 

EXPERIENCE OF NATIVE CHRISTIANS IN THE LOVE- 
FEAST. 

Brother Dsau (C. K. M.) said: ''We have met to- 
day, according to Christ's appointment. I am glad 
to be here. I feel that I need m.uch more of the love 
of God and man in my heart. I want to live nearer 
to God from this time on. I will not say much now. 
I beg an interest in your prayers, that I may be faith- 
ful to the end." 

Brother Fong said : " Before I heard the doctrine 
of Jesus I was ignorant and in the dark ; but I am 
glad that I have learned the way of salvation. I 
trust in Jesus, and hope to gain a home in heaven. I 
hope you, my brethren and sisters, will pray for me, 
and help me to do the will of my Saviour," 

Brother Yung gaid ; ^' 1 am glad to meet you, 
brethren and sisters, in the iove-least I am trying 
to $erve God; but I .am v^ry we^k, I .am Ukp 1^ 



I06 NATIVE HELPERS. 

little child amidst many and strong enemies. I ask 
you to pray for me and assist me, that in the dangers 
and trials to which I may be exposed hereafter, I 
may stand firm and overcome all my enemies, and, 
with you all, gain a home in heaven." 

Brother Tsung said : '* Before I heard the gospel I 
did not know true happiness ; but since I believed in 
Jesus I have experienced great peace and joy in my 
heart. I love Jesus, and I know he loves me and 
will, save me. Trusting in Jesus, I hope to gain a 
home in heaven. I hope to meet you all there. I 
ask you to pray for me, that I may be faithful." 

Brother Dzung said : ^' Before I heard the doctrine 
of Jesus I thought I was very wise and good. I did 
not think I had done any tliirg very wrong or wick- 
ed ; but when I heard th^ gospel, and believed it, I 
began to feel that I was a sinner, and the more I 
heard it the more I felt that I v/as a very great sin- 
ner. But I trusted in Jesus, and obtained the pardon 
of all my sins. I trust in the grace of Jesus, and 
want to do his will. I ask an interest in your prayers, 
that God will help me to do his will." 

The old sexton said : " I am weak, very weak ; 
but I trust in Jesus, and by the grace of God I am 
what I am." 

An old Bible-woman said : '* I have been trusting 
in Jesus for many years. I know that he loves me. 
Before I heard the gospel I worshiped many idols 
and false gods ; but I am glad that I have learned to 
V/orship the true Cjod, and to trust in my Saviour, 
Jesu^ .Christ I pray ^yery .day that the Heavenly 
Fathc;* WQyid bles§ hig (ii\\iic\ii ajid ad4 many tg it^ 
^Bf| maki It yeiy prosperpns; | })opg yoij will all 



NATIVE HELPERS. 10/ 

pray for me, that I may have the presence and grace 
of God, and that I .may at last gain a home in 
Heaven." 

Several others spoke, and gave experiences sim- 
ilar to the above. 

At half-past ten the sermon was preached by the 
Rev. Young J. Allen — text, John xxi: 15-17. It was 
an earnest discourse, delivered to a crowded house, 
and was heard with interest. At the close of the 
sisrmon, Mr. Lambuth called Dsau Tse Yeh, Dzung 
Yoong Chung, Yung King San, and See Tse Kia, 
forward to the altar, and presented them to be or- 
dained deacons in the Church of God. In the after- 
noon the first two named were also ordained elders. 
This new and solemn, service produced a profound 
impression on the native Church. I never witnessed 
a more solemn awe upon an assembly. 

I have great hope of these men. The first-named, 
Dsau, accompanied Mr. Lambuth to America in 
1862, and was in the family of Dr. Kelley for several 
years. To Mrs. Kelley, the mother of the Doctor, 
he says he owes his salvation, under God. He was 
baptized by our ascended Bishop Andrew. About 
1870, he returned to China, and soon entered upon 
the great work of his life. He is now thirty-one 
years old, in good health, and, so far as we can judge, 
promises to be a very useful man. 

Dzung Yoong Chung was baptized by Mr. Lam- 
buth in 1870, and was employed for about a year as 
sexton and colporteur at Naziang, after which, as 
our Mission was straitened for means, he was lent to 
the Presbyterians for several years. With them he 
did good service, and so soon as we were in circum- 



loB NATIVE HELPERS. 

stances to employ him he came back to us an Intelli- 
gent Christian and well-trained preacher, but with a 
shattered voice, and I fear, an impaired constitution. 
His sermon on Christmas-day was spoken of by those 
who understood it as one of great merit. His wife 
is in charge of a school, and is intelligent, active, 
and full of zeal — a most useful little woman. 

Yung King San is forty-three years old, was bap- 
tized by Mr. Lambuth in 1857, and has been preach- 
ing about five years. He is by trade a carpenter. 
His education is limited, but since his conversion he 
has been a diligent student of the word of God. 
He is a man of profound experience and of most 
stable and blameless life, and his preaching is very 
acceptable. The missionaries trust him implicitly. 

See Tse Kia was trained in the Presbyterian 
school at Hang Chow, where he was converted and 
baptized. He comes to us highly recommended for 
depth and stability of character, and though he is 
not specially brilliant, yet he has the good sense and 
piety to make him a very valuable man. His name, 
which we write See In English, is really pronounced 
without any vowel sound. Write Szzz — s and three 
z's — and then exercise your powers of articulation 
upon it. 

At six o'clock on Sunday night, I preached to the 
foreign congregation at the Union Church, and had 
the largest congregation I have met in Shanghai. 
At eight o'clock we were in the chapel again and 
heard Dsau. The congregation was large, and more 
than usually attentive. 

Thus closed one of the richest Sundays I have 
ever enjoyed. The Mission premises had the aspect 



NATIVE HELPERS. IO9 

of a hallowed place, under the rich glow of the Sun- 
day sunlight. But, alas ! no sooner did I pass out of 
the gate and cross the " tsun-ka-mook-ja," on my 
way to the Union Church, than I found myself in the 
midst of the crowd and rush of business and pleasure, 
and the Sunday was chopped off at a stroke. What 
an oasis in a Sabbathless desert in this little enclosure 
which contains the Mission buildings ! 

Christmas-day — Monday — ^dawned bright upon us, 
and the services connected with the occasion were 
closed by a sermon from Dzung. The text was in 
the Prophecy of Micah. The sermon, I am told, 
gave a very intelligent account of the prophetic 
office, a rapid and accurate survey of the history of 
Micah, some remarkably succinct and correct 
geographical descriptions, and then enlarged upon 
the coming and work of Christ. There was a quiet 
fervor that fixed the attention of all who understood 
the language, and even on us who occupied the seat 
of the unlearned, there was the sense of a gracious 
presence — the overshadowing of the Spirit of God. 



CHAPTER X. 

BY CANAL TO SOOCHOW AND HANG. CHOW. 

JUST BEFORE nightfall, December 26, we went on 
board of our fleet of canal boats, for a trip to 
Soochow, the place where Mr. Parker is station- 
ed, intending also to visit our principal out-stations 
on the way. The fleet consisted of three boats, one 
of which is. the property of our Mission, one the 
private property of Mr. Lambuth, and the third lent 
us for the occasion by the Rev. Mr. Fitch, of the 
Presbyterian Mission at Soochow. These boats are 
all constructed upon the same general model, but 
with many differences of detail. I will describe the 
one which belongs to the Mission, and that will give 
an idea of them all. The boat is about thirty feet 
in length, and nine feet wide, including the poles that 
lie along on the outside of the upper part of the 
hull, making a sort of rim. On this boat a cabin is 
constructed, which is eighteen feet long, and seven 
feet wide at the widest part. There is a partition in 
the middle, dividing the cabin into two rooms oFnine 
feet in length, the ceiling being six feet high. In 
each of these rooms there is a platform on one side 
for a bed, to accommodate one person. In one of 
them there is also a cot, placed for this voyage, to 
accommodate an extra passenger, thus furnishing 
sleeping accommodations for three. In one corner 



CANAL TRIP. Ill 

there Is a diminutive stove, with two lids on the top, 
Hke a cooking-stove, so that it serves very well for 
cooking a simple meal. The other two boats have 
real cooking-stoves. These boats are propelled by 
the scull, or by towing, alternating from one to the 
other. When the wind is favorable they hoist a sail, 
and then, with sail and 5cull, they go bravely, espe- 
cially if the tide is favorable ; for the tide extends 
inland some twenty-five miles from Shanghai, and in 
the smaller canals boats the size of ours can move 
only when the tide is in. 

Our company consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Lambuth, 
and their son Willie, Mr. Allen and his son Edgar, 
Mr. Parker, Mr. Hendrix, and myself and Mr. Dsau. 
Parker, Hendrix, and myself, were on the Mission 
boat. We have no cooking done for ourselves. There 
is a place aft, where our coolies sleep, and have a 
Chinese cooking-furnace for their own provisions— a 
very simple affair. 

About 7 o'clock we were called on board of Mr. 
Lambuth's boat for supper, and there, behold a table 
all set out with elegant dishes, produced from the 
snuggest of little cupbords, and as the meal proceed- 
ed a little pantry-door opens, and behold the cream, 
and milk, and sugar, and things ! — a succession of 
surprises for raw Americans like H. and myself. 
There we were, seated in small compass to be sure ; 
but there were five of us at the table, amply pro- 
vided, and then a little on one side were Willie and 
Dsau. The cosy and comfortable meal ended, the 
Bible was produced^ and a songvboolc for each, flow 
WQ enjoyed 1^? ^vorship of C?o4 t:ogether in these 



112 CANAL TRIP. 

About 9 o'clock we went on board of our own 
boat, which came alongside for that purpose, and 
soon retired; for what with business, and public 
services, and sight-seeing, with which we had been 
incessantly occupied ever since we landed at Shang- 
hai, to say nothing of writing, we really felt the need 
of a good night's rest — and we got it. Our narrow 
beds were abundantly supplied with covering, and, 
for one, I, at least, slept through nine hours solid. 

The weather, v/hich had been cloudy and unpleas- 
ant during the greater part of our stay in Shanghai, 
cleared up beautifully, as if to give us the best pos- 
sible conditions of travel and enjoyment. Our first 
morning was glorious. The dead grass was white 
with frost, the air was crisp and bracing, and the sun 
flooded the landscape. After breakfast and. prayers 
on Mr. Lambuth's boat, we stepped on the bank, and 
indulged in one of the most delightful walks of two 
or three miles that mortals ever enjoyed. Wheat- 
fields, patches of turnips, cabbages, and other vege- 
tables, and fields of cotton-stalks, spread abroad in 
every direction, on a dead level, as far as the eye can 
reach, with here and there a grove of bamboo dotting 
the landscape, and marking the sites of the villages ; 
for the farmers all live in villages. You see no farm- 
house on the farm, as with us. 

The end of our w^alk brought us to the celebrated 
Wongdoo bridge, to which point our boats had pre- 
ceded us. After a few minutes of silent prayer in 
the boats, we proceeded to the chapel, where both 
Brothers Lanributh and Allen delivered short ser-. 
gionS; or @?chortatioi]s, ancj thf^u §oH ^?y^r^l tr^GtS; 



CANAL TRIP. 113 

and gave away some sheets, and had, in the main, a 
pleasant hour. 

As we approached the town we saw the soldiers, 
perhaps fifteen hundred in number, out on drill. 
Their evolutions were accompanied by music of 
rather a stirring sort. They were too far away to 
enable us to judge of them ; but as they marched 
into their quarters they came near to us, and we saw 
that, though the order was not broken up, yet the 
lines were extremely irregular. The uniform was of 
a dark ground, with broad trimming of bright colors, 
mostly red. The single uniform did not strike me as 
being well-designed ; but the appearance was strik- 
ing as you saw a thousand men marching together. 
Most of them were armed with muskets ; but one 
company had spears, the heads fixed in bamboo- 
poles. Behind them, as they marched into their 
quarters, came four coolies, bearing the great drum 
on two poles. 

At this place — Wongdoo — we have only a rented 
chapel, where o-ur Brother Fong preaches once a 
week, his principal point being Naziang, eight miles 
distant. He met us here at the chapel. We had 
seen him before at Shanghai, and although it was not 
thought well to confer orders on him, yet I had 
formed a high opinion of him as a sensible and thor- 
oughly good man. 

From Wongdoo we proceeded to Naziang, a dis- 
tance of not more than eight miles by land, but, I 
suppose, at least twice as much by the canal, the last 
half of the 4istange bein^ hy a grriall aross canal, 
in which bo^t^ th^ sizQ of oursi Fequire the advantage 
gf tjie tide; which ROW .^^ best wa^ but a neap<tido^ 



114 CANAL TRIP. 

and was beginning to fall at that. So our men had 
a hard time of it, and we walked a good part of the 
way. We passed through several of the farming- 
villages, and found that while at a little distance the 
houses looked rather picturesque, a near view re- 
vealed a very miserable sort of life. The houses 
are, most of them, built of brick, of only one thick- 
ness, laid in a frame of wood, and covered with tile. 
They have no floor but the naked earth, no furniture, 
no cleanliness — nothing, absolutely nothing, that 
looks cheerful or home-like. Baskets containing 
rice, and all sorts of things that may happen to need 
shelter, are' scattered about in the utmost confusion. 
The people are not cleanly in their persons ; many of 
them are in rags, and things generally have a most 
squalid look. The stacks of straw are in front of 
their houses, and what few domestic animals they 
have are tied in the same place. 

These canals are spanned with numerous bridges, 
which are all of stone, and the l-arger ones arched. 
The arch, on the under side, as it springs from 
pier to pier, often shows a beautiful arc, while the 
upper side comes up to a ridge like the roof of a 
house ; for, be it known, that these bridges, though 
strong and massive enough to support a train of cars, 
were built only for pedestrians, and are rarely crossed 
even by a horse, never by any sort of vehicle. 

We were an hour or two in advance of our boats 
at Naziang, and entered the town on foot, reaching 
the residence of grother Fong at sunset, In connec- 
tion with thig parsonage, and part of the same j^uild- 
ing, 13 -the girls*rSchool, In front of il? therQ is a 
pieasani little yard^ fenced y/ith wattled baniboQ^ 



CANAL TRIP. 115 

An Inclosure in connection with a house in China is 
a rare thing. As we entered the gate, I heard a 
boy's voice behind me, saying, '' Ha-la-va, ka-toh, 
se-sang " — How do you do, Mr. Bishop ? or. How 
do you do, bishop-teacher? Looking round, I saw a 
very bright-looking and neatly-dressed boy, whose 
face was fairly beaming with pleasure. He was the 
son of the teacher of the boys'-school here, is nine or 
ten years old, and on probation for membership in 
the Church. His father had been at Shanghai at our 
meeting, and had been profoundly impressed. He 
had returned home the day before our arrival, and 
the son had been on the lookout for the ka-toh, with 
breathless expectation. Seeing me with Mr. Lam- 
buth, he knew who I was. Fong had also preceded 
us, coming on foot across the country from Woosung. 
He received us with joy, and we were soon shown 
through the premises. The boats arrived about 6 
o'clock, and we had dinner over in time for preach- 
ing in the chapel at 8, by Brother Dsau. The con- 
gregation was rather turbulent ; but there were sev- 
eral who listened with apparent interest. In the 
morning we visited both the schools, there being two 
at Naziang — one for boys and one for girls. Both 
the teachers are Christian men, though they are not 
preachers. The teacher of the boys'-school has been 
in the Church only nine months, but seems to be 
soundly converted, and to be .coming to a very ad- 
vanced stage both of knowledge and experience. 
He is a man of excellent sense and a good deal of 
personal force. He is full of zeal, and promises great 
usefulness. In the boys'-school there are eighteen 
pupils, and several of them are in the habit of secret 



Il6 CANAL TRIP. 

prayer. The teacher has great hope of several of 
them. I noticed one of them, that is going to make 
a very superior man, and, I hope, a preacher. I 
could not restrain prayer in his behalf 

In the girls'-school there are eight, and two more 
promised. This school has been very recently open- 
ed, and is filling up as fast as was expected. It will, 
no doubt, soon have as many pupils as there is room 
for. I was delighted to find these premises so neat 
and well-kept. 

While we were here the brethren were overflow- 
ing with love. They gave us tea and nuts, and 
observing that H. was shivering with cold, proposed 
to get a fur vest for him. 

Our Sister Fong is a notable housewife, and carries 
on all sorts of domestic employment, being adept in 
spinning and weaving. We saw her at both these 
employments, and at the wheel she performed a feat 
not uncommon in China, but which seemed impossi- 
ble to us. She turned the wheel, by a most simple 
contrivance, with her feet, using both of them — being 
in a sitting posture — and spun three threads at once^ 
the wheel running three spindles. 

All the goods worn by the common people are 
spun and woven at home — not only s©, but generally 
also from cotton raised, gathered, ginned — I cannot 
say carded, for they have no cards, but made into 
rolls, spun, and woven by the same family. In trav- 
eling through the country, you will everywhere see 
pieces of thread in warp. This' is done not as our 
mothers used to do it, on pegs in a frame, but 
stretched at full length, out in the highways or 
fields. 



CANAL TRIP. 117 

We have two good lots in Naziang, on one of 
which the chapel and boys'-school stand, and on the 
other the girls'-school and native parsonage. 

Upon the whole, we returned to our boats, and 
took our leave of Naziang, well-pleased with our 
visit. But before we left we went to see the laughing 
Buddha. It is a colossal image, fat and jolly-look- 
ing, with the mouth spread as if in hearty laughter; 
but the jolly old god is a good deal dilapidated. His 
extremities are crumbling, and the end of the walk- 
ing-stick of one of our company, in contact with 
his big toe, hastened the process. The old fellow's 
temple is as ruinous as he, a large part of the roof 
having already fallen in, and the rest seeming just 
ready to tumble, while a number of attendant gods 
and goddesses are m a most woful plight. But his 
godship laughs away as if nothing was going on — a 
most insensible deity, one would say. He is as 
heartless as Nero, who laughed and fiddled — or 
fiddled, at least — while Rome was burning. 

It was after 10 o'clock when we left Naziang, and, 
with both wind and tide favorable, w^e reached Kar- 
ding about I. This is the principal appointment of 
our native Brother Tsung. We have only a rented 
house here. The preacher and his family live up 
stairs over the story that is used for a chapel. Here 
we had a crowd, who were brought together by seeing 
the foreigners on the streets. Tsung preached a short 
discourse and was followed by Mr. Allen. We then 
visited the boys'-school near by. There are, I be- 
lieve, about a dozen pupils. The teacher is not a 
member of the Church, but shows a serious interest 
in the Scriptures. But Tsung gives the boys religious 



Il8 CANAL TRIP. 

instruction, and several of them show signs of the 
work of grace in their Hves. 

Three different pieces of property are offered us 
on good terms, and we ought by all means to have a 
chapel here, and both a boys' and girls' school. 

Passing along the streets, we heard sounds on the 
right which were semi-musical, and through a narrow 
opening we saw candles burning, and turned aside to 
see what it might mean. Mr. Allen, who is an inval- 
uable cicerone, soon saw that it was in a Tauist tem- 
ple, and that the ceremonies going on were for the 
release of a soul from purgatory — for the Tauists, as 
well as the Buddhists and Romanists, have their pur- 
gatory, which yields a good revenue. In the hands 
of skillful priests, there is no better paying institution. 
Upon a little inquiry, we learned that the man for 
whose benefit these ceremonies were performed had 
been dead about six months; that his children had 
employed the priests to get him out of purgatory; 
that he had been out for three days, but that after 
his release from the lower regions, it required a fur- 
ther lift to get him up through the intervening spaces 
into paradise. This was what they were at now. 
The temple was gorgeously decorated with images, 
tablets and gilt hangings. One priest stood in an 
inner recess, and two others, with a servitor, were out 
in the larget space in front, the whole being confined 
to rather a small area, the temple not being a large 
one. Off on one side were some three others, one 
beating on a sort of bell, another on a metallic plate, 
.which gave rather a short, dull sound, and the third 
playing on a flute. Occasionally a few sentences 
were intoned responsively. The robes of the priests 



CANAL TRIP. 119 

were very gorgeous ; that of the one who seemed to 
be playing the chief part was of bright red ground, 
with a blue border, three or four inches wide, around 
the bottom of it, which extended down to the feet, 
and faced down the front, on each side, with white. 
On the red ground at the center of the back, or a lit- 
tle above the center, was the gilt figure of a pagoda, 
and scattered profusely over it were gilt spangles 
and dragons. He and another priest were generally 
vis-a-vis with each other, and often changed places 
as if they were dancing; indeed, they came to- 
gether quite actively at times. One of them held 
in his hand a piece of wood, about six inches long, 
and an inch and a half square, hung about with 
pieces of paper covered with writing, on which his 
eyes were intently fixed. His vis-a-vis retired 
after a time, smoked his pipe for a few moments, 
and then seated himself with a flute, and helped 
the music. The principal actor continued gazing 
on his strips of paper, and posturing about on a 
piece of coarse cloth, which had a few mysterious 
characters on it, in a certain relation to which he 
seemed to place him.self at every change of position, 
now and then bowing himself quite down to the 
earth, and touching his paper-covered wand with his 
forehead; and so the performance was still going on 
when we left. 

During the whole scene, spectators- came and went 
at pleasure, some even passing between the officiat- 
ing priests, while children romped around unchecked. 
One man, who stood within four feet of the chief 
priest, gave Mr, Allen thQ history of the case in a 
very jpu4 vpIg?; F.)}!]^ B^B9 9i t^he priests looked 



I20 CANAL TRIP. 

around curiously at the foreigners. I should have 
been filled with disgust at the nonsense of the whole 
affair if it had not been for the horror I felt, that the 
great enemy of God and man should have acquired 
such control of countless millions of our race, and 
that by means even of their religious instincts. How 
readily they spend their money under his inspira- 
tions, and how eagerly they accept the silliest theat- 
ricals by which he, through his priests, pretends to 
manage their eternal destinies ! What slaves of 
superstition they are ! and from this fearful bondage 
nothing can ever free them but the gospel of the 
grace of God. 

It was late in the afternoon when we took boat 
again, and we saw nothing more during the afternoon 
except the villages along the banks of the canal, and 
one c'f these villages is like all the rest. After supper, 
and the worship of God, we tied up near a village for 
the night, and I came over into the boat in which we 
slept to spend an hour or two in writing. Soon my 
companions were in bed, and I felt a hallowed sense 
of the presence of God as I was writing. Here, at 
least, in our three boats, was a Christian atmosphere, 
in the midst of a vast region where Christ is not 
known. I felt how inadequate a representation of 
my own Church, for the work of evangelizing China, 
was contained in these three little boats, but faith 
triumphed in visions of the near future, when every 
man, woman and child in the M. E. Church, South, 
should be filled with holy ardor, and every Confer- 
ence emulous to excel in the work, May God hasten 
the day, even in my time ! 

3y flv^ p'clocif on Friday morning we ^yere un6§f 



CANAL TRIP. 121 

headway again. Breakfast over, and earnest prayer 
having been made for tiie blessing of God on our 
work, we found ourselves passing through a consid- 
erable village, from the rubbish of which the channel 
had been so filled up that all our men from the three 
boats had to join in shoving them over, one after 
the other. This wonderful system of arti-ficial water- 
ways, constructed centuries ago by a wise govern- 
ment and a public-spirited people, has now for ages 
been left in perfect neglect, and where a channel 
becomes choked so as to obstruct commerce and 
travel, though labor is so cheap that a few hundred 
dollars would put it in good order, nothing is ever 
done. The present government seems to care noth- 
ing for the people. They are for nothing but to be 
taxed, and there is not statesmanship sufficient to see 
that an administration looking to an active internal 
commerce and the promoting of the prosperity of 
the people would also increase the revenue. 

We left the boats struggling through this shallow 
place ; passed through the village on foot, passing by 
the houses and straw-stacks; saw the domestic 
water-buffalo, with his queer retreating horns, tied to 
a stake and taking his repose ; entered a little barn 
where men were hulling rice by a primitive sort of 
machinery, run by the inevitable buffalo ; met some 
dozens of cowardly dogs — they all bark furiously as 
you approach, but slink away in a sneaking manner 
as you come near to them — crossed a bridge made of 
stone slabs, at least twenty feet long, one end resting 
on each abutment; and, at the end of a dehghtful 
walk of a mile, perhaps, found ourselves on the margin 



122 CANAL TRIP. 

of the large canal leading direct to Soochow, where 
we waited for our fleet. 

These stone slab bridges are something unique 
and remarkable. We saw similar ones in Japan, but 
nothing like so long. I have not measured them, 
but I am sure I have seen some that were twenty- 
five feet long. Abutments are built on each side of 
a ditch or narrow canal, and two or three of these 
long slabs, eighteen inches wide, and ten thick, are 
laid across the chasm. I doubt if any stone in 
America could be trusted to bear its own weight in 
the same circumstances. 

Once on the large canal, we hoisted sail, and, 
making fine headway, soon reached the walled city 
of Kwung Shan. After especial prayer, we entered 
the city with copies of the Gospels and tracts, and 
sent our boats around to the west gate, where we 
would join them. Mrs. L. remaining in the boat 
with the boys, Mr. L. went through the most popu- 
lous part of the city selling books and talking to the 
people, so far as his great hoarseness would allow, 
while the rest of us made a detour, and ascended the 
Kwung Shan, an elevation of about four hundred 
feet, I should think, within the walls of the city. It 
is a singular, solitary mound of granite in the midst 
of this vast alluvial region. The summit is crowned 
with a pagoda. From this point we saw over the 
whole city, which is not so populous as formerly, 
and presents rather a poor appearance. In a small 
cave in the rocks we saw several stone idols, all 
mutilated by the '' rebels," all headless but one, and 
that one with half the face broken off. After the 
war, some devout man had collected them, placed 



CANAL TRIP. 123 

them In this nook, and protected them by a strong 
colonnade of stone. Mr. H. suggested that since his 
gods could not take care of him, he had generously 
endeavored to take care of them. Poor headless 
things — what a commentary on an idolatrous 
ndigion ! 

The whole summit is covered with the debris of 
demolished or decayed temples. 

As we descended the precipitous western slope, 
we came upon another laughing Buddha, carved in 
stone. The figure is very rotund, as if full of rice, a 
Chinaman's ideal of comfort, and the mouth is fairly 
stretched with laughter. But he, too, is going to 
deoay. His lips are largely worn away, as is the end 
of his nose, though he is a granite god. But never a 
bit does he seem to care, and his mouth is forever 
set for a big guffaw, even as he goes to destruction. 
H. could not forbear from thrusting the end of 
his bamboo cane into the gaping mouth of the 
rollicking, though decaying divinity, and so hasten- 
ing, by a little, the process of disintegration. 

Starting out again we soon met two boats, with 
about a dozen cormorants perched on projecting 
poles on each side. These birds are trained for fish- 
ing, as hawks were for fowling, formerly, in Europe. 
A ring is placed on the neck of each, which prevents 
him from s\vallowing a fish of any size. I am told 
they do their work very intelligently and efficiently. 
They dive and swim under the water with great 
rapidity. They also seem to understand their 
masters perfectly, and bring in the fish with great 
docility when they find they can't swallow it. They 
are a disgusting, buzzard-like looking bird. 



124 CANAL TRIP. 

On Saturday, at noon, we reached Soochow, 
having traveled eighty miles from Shanghai ; indeed, 
the distance is greater by the route we came. Here 
we were received into the houses of our brethren of 
the Presbyterian Churches, North and South, with 
the most cordial hospitality. Mr. Parker being a 
bachelor, and having been now so long from home, 
was not in trim for entertaining guests at his house. 

In this great city we have two chapels and a 
school, and are preparing room for a day school 
besides. In connection with one of the chapels is 
the residence of Dsau, and the boarding department 
of the boys of the school. The property is well 
adapted to its uses, and we found every thing neatly 
kept. 

On Sunday morning we visited the Sunday-school, 
which is composed entirely of the boys of the board- 
ing-school. They are fine-looking fellows ; indeed, 
I thought exceptionally so. We proposed questions 
to them covering a very large range of Bible-history 
and doctrine. They were never at fault but once, 
and in that case I am satisfied they did not get the 
point of the question. I doubt if the same number 
.in any Sunday-school in America would have an- 
swered so many questions of the same character. 

Here Mr. Lambuth preached in the school-room, 
and administered the sacrament. 

In the afternoon we went to the new chapel, in 
another part of the city, where we found every thing 
in excellent condition. Mr. L. preached to a large 
and very intelligent-looking congregation, and the 
most quie-t and attentive of all the promiscuous con- 
gregations I have seen in China. At the same hour 



CANAL TRIP. 125 

Mr. Allen preached for Mr. Dubose, of the Southern 
Presbyterian Church. - 

At 4 o'clock p. M. the missionaries all met at Miss 
Safford's house, and heard a sermon by Mr. Hen- 
drix — a very profitable discourse. Miss S. is in the 
employ of the Southern Presbyterian Board as a 
teacher. She is entirely consecrated, and, although 
she has suffered many trials, still rejoices in the work. 
At night they all met again at the house of the Rev. 
Mr. Fitch, of the Northern Presbyterian Church, for 
a sermon by myself. The only foreign residents at 
Soochow are the missionaries, and visitors are rare, 
so that our coming was hailed as a great event, and 
the Sunday we spent with the brethren was a high 
day. We shall never cease to pray for them. 

From this place we went to Hangchow, and saw 
much and heard much ; but I have no space for it. 
This is, perhaps, the largest, as it is the handsomest, 
city in this part of China. After spending a day 
with our brethren of the Southern Presbyterian 
Board here, we returned to Shanghai, arriving early 
on Sunday morning. 

We had been gone less than two weeks, traveled 
350 miles, and seen nine walled cities, besides towns 
and villages without number. 

But the country we have seen is not what it was 
twenty-five years ago. It is the region so long 
occupied by the insurgents. The great cities are 
not over half their former size — some of them not 
that. Miles and miles of ruins greet the eye within 
the walls of Soochow, Hangchow, and other places. 
The stories they tell of death and devastation are 
harrowing to the last degree. By the side of it, the 



I20 LAST DAYS IN CHINA. 

devastations of our own civil war were as nothing. 
War in civilized and Christian countries is suffi- 
ciently awful, but here it is in the last degree 
horrible. 

But the country is recovering, yet it will be a hun- 
dred years, or more, before it recovers fully from the 
shock. 



CHAPTER XL 

LAST DAYS IN CHINA. 

Vp/HE TRAVELER in new regions will often find 
I occasion to modify first impressions and opin- 
ions, and this I have done in several particulars 
since I landed in Shanghai. Every particular fact 
that I have written is true ; but sometimes the par- 
ticular fact is related to other facts so as to modify 
its significance. What I have said about the dreadful 
odors one meets with here is literally correct; but 
the universal filthiness of the Chinese, to be naturally 
inferred from this fact, is nothing like so bad as I at 



LAST DAYS IN CHINA. 12/ 

first supposed. True, there is much dirt upon the 
person and in the home of the cooUe, and, as com- 
pared with the Japanese, they are greatly at a dis- 
advantage in this respect. But the zvorst is on the 
surface. The street of a Chinese city is the most 
odious part of it. The dwelhngs, especially of the 
well-to-do, are quite remote from the street, and 
in an atmosphere comparatively untainted. You 
pass from the street through two or three courts, and 
then upstairs, before you reach the apartments occu- 
pied by the family ; while on the street is the cook- 
ing-range, and all depositories of refuse substances, 
with the stench arising from them. The street is 
simply a very bad alley. 

There is so much to write about in China that I 
am much at a loss to select, for ten thousand things 
must be omitted. But one of the most delightful 
things that occurred in our visit was connected 
with our leaving, which was by the P. and O. steamer 
of Friday, Jan. 12. On Thursday evening all the 
missionaries, together with Mr. Hendrix and myself, 
dined at Mr. Allen's. Perhaps the American reader 
ought to be informed that dinner in this country is 
the last meal of the day, the order being breakfast, 
tiffin, or lunch, and then, at seven or eight o'clock, 
p. M., dinner. As we could not all be together again, 
we held a prayer-meeting after dinner, and a season 
of grace it was. All hearts were melted, and all 
flowed together in love. It was 10 o'clock when we 
returned to the residence of Mr. Lambuth. There 
the native helpers awaited us — all but one, Dsau, of 
Soochow, who was too far away to make a special 
trip for the occasion. But Fong, from Naziang, had 



128 LAST DAYS IN CHINA. 

come down fifteen miles to take leave of us. 
This was of his own suggestion. So, also, we were 
quite surprised to find Dsung, of Karding, from a 
distance of twenty-four miles. He said he had not 
been informed of the date of our departure, but the 
night before he suddenly felt a strong impulse to 
come down, lest he might see our faces no more. 
Late as it was, I could not forbear to worship God 
with these devoted men. After a solemn parting 
charge to them, I called on all of them, one after 
the other, to lead in prayer, and then, with a most 
solemn sense of the presence of God, I commended 
them to Him and to the word of His grace. After 
that Mr. Hendrix spoke some most appropriate 
words to them, which were interpreted by Mr. 
Lambuth. Then each one of them said a parting 
word to us. They desired us to remember that 
the foundations of the Church here were not yet 
strongly laid, but that they still needed the uphold- 
ing hand of the Church in America. One of them 
said that the branches of this tree were not well 
grown, and had not yet struck down deep into the 
soil here, but m.ust still look to the distant root out 
of which they had sprung at first. They desired us 
to be in prayers for them daily that God might con- 
firm them in the way of life, and make their word 
effectual to the salvation of their countrymen, assur- 
ing us, at the same time, that they would pray for us, 
that we might have a prosperous journey, and reach 
our homes in peace. They requested us to be the 
bearers of messages of love to the Church in Amer- 
ica, to which they were indebted for the word of 
God, which had enlightened their hearts and turned 



LAST DAYS IN CHINA. 1 29 

them away from dumb Idols to serve the Hving God ; 
and to ask, in their name, that prayer should be made 
for them continually, that the Holy Spirit of God 
might rest upon them, and that they might be filled 
with His grace. Finally, they most affectionately re- 
quested us to visit them again, expressing the hope 
that should we do so we might find that the seed had 
produced a harvest of not only thirty or sixty, but an 
hundred-fold. 

In all this there was a depth of feeling expressed 
in countenance and voice that touched us deeply. 
There is not, in my mind, the slightest doubt remain- 
ing that the Chinaman is as susceptible of Christian 
agencies as any other man, and as capable of taking 
on the highest type of Christian charcter. He is a 
man, though an idolater, and, when the subject of 
converting grace, he has as deep and rich a sense of 
God as human nature is capable of. His faith is as 
strong and commanding, his power of self-denial as 
great, his love as pure, and his life as devoted, as that 
of the European or American. It is true that the 
Chinese civilization, though elaborate, is decidedly 
low as compared with that of Europe or America ; 
but the main cause of this, I am satisfied, is found in 
the false religion in which he has been bred for ages. 
I think it is also true that the sense of integrity in 
the average Chinaman is low, comparatively ; but the 
same cause again has produced this result. The 
knowledge of God will bring out both the civilization 
and the average character of the Chinese, and raise 
them to the highest plane. 

I am now going to state a proposition, of the truth 
of which I have no doubt, and one which is of the 

*5 



I 30 LASt DAYS IN CHINA. 

greatest importance to the Church. My opinion in 
the premises is formed upon large inquiry and ex- 
tended observation. It is this : 

The Chinese are the most vital of all the Asiatic 
peoples, and naturally superior to all others, being at 
this time the most progressive, and, with the excep- 
tion of the Japanese, the only progressive people of 
the East. 

In justification of this statement, I adduce the fol- 
lowing facts : 

1. The Chinese are the only people of the East 
who go abroad in considerable numbers. The large 
irruption of them into America is a fact well-known. 
Nearer home they are more numerous. In all the 
islands and countries along the Straits of Malacca, 
and as far as Siam, they are found in great numbers. 

2. They are. the most industrious and prosperous 
people in all the regions invaded by them. In San 
Francisco they have almost monopolized certain in--^ 
dustries ; but in Asiatic countries this is true in a 
higher degree. There the most lucrative employments 
are in their hands. They are the mechanics and arti- 
sans, and, to a large extent, the merchants of the 
countries where they are found away from home. At 
Nagasaki, in Japan, they are competing strongly 
with Europeans and Americans for commercial 
supremacy, and at the leading Japanese ports they 
are the bankers. Indeed, the finances of Japan are 
largely controlled by them. In San Francisco, too, 
there are some princely Chinese merchants; and 
recently, I am told, they have established a great 
importing house in London. 

3. The foreign business of the open ports in China 



LAST DAYS IN CHINA. I3I 

is passing more and more into Chinese hands. 
When the ports wer^ at first opened the native mer- 
cha'nts, ignorant of European business customs, 
allowed foreigners to monopolize the international 
commerce; but not so now. They have proved apt 
scholars, and are in active and successful competi- 
tion with the world in every line of business. Even 
in the matter of steam-navigation they are coming 
to the front. At first steamboats and steamships 
on their waters were owned entirely by Americans 
and Englishmen ; but now native companies are 
taking the lead ; and if things continue to go on as 
they now promise to do, the foreigner will be rooted 
out in a few years. They are beginning actually to 
build steamships at home, and are even providing 
themselves with iron-clad men-of-war. They are 
getting up stupendous works at the arsenal, which 
we visited in company with Mr. Allen, who is a 
teacher in the Government school there. They are 
manufacturing fire-arms of the most approved Amer- 
ican models, and the work is as neatly and thor- 
oughly done as it is anywhere in the world. 

It is true that in many respects they are at a dis- 
advantage, and are inferior to the people of Europe 
and America. They are the slaves of immemorial 
tradition, not only in the matter of religion, but in 
regard to social customs, political economy, educa- 
tion, and every thing else. They are in many 
respects — in most respects — just what they have been 
for two or three thousand years. But, as I have 
already intimated, this is owing more to the dreadful 
tyranny of a false religion than to any natural inca- 
pacity for progress. As the true faith becomes 



132 LAST DAYS IN CHINA. 

Spread abroad more and more you will see Chinese 
mind bounding forward with a spring and vigor that 
will astonish the world. 

At any rate, my statement remains true, that of 
all Asiatic nations they are the most vigorous. 
Indeed, they are the only people of the East who go 
abroad in such numbers as to affect the conditions of 
neighboring countries — the only people who are 
largely felt abroad. 

What interest has the Church in this fact? This: 
the conversion of China would be, virtually, the con- 
version of all Eastern Asia, and tha^" would, prac- 
tically, complete the conquest of the world. 

I rejoice, that though our Church has but one 
Mission across the ocean, that one is in China. It 
puts us into the midst of the campaign which is to 
be final and decisive m the enthronement of the Son 
of God over the nations. China conquered, the 
world will be virtually at the feet of Jesus. Here 
we are at the front. There are 400,000,000 souls in 
this Empire itself, and then, as we have seen, they 
influence vitally other regions. The Christian faith 
once dominant in China, it must, through the Chi- 
nese, move out with great vigor upon all neighboring 
peoples. 

Let the Church, then, advance in full force upon 
China. It is the great strategic point now. We must 
mass our forces here. By this '* we " I mean the 
whole Christian Church. But especially, now, I appeal 
to our own Church ; for, if Vv^e are fortunate in having 
selected China as our field of operations in the 
Orient, we are fortunate, agiin, in the particular loca- 
tion we have chosen in the Empire, Shanghai, at 



LAST DAYS IN CHINA. I 33 

the mouth of the Yang Tse Kiang, and commanding 
the commerce of that great river, as well as the coast- 
commerce of a very extended and fertile region, is 
the great entre-pot of Central China. It is in a tem- 
perate climxate, and in immediate connecfion with 
that wonderful system of canals, the like of which is 
not in all the world. Here, on an area as large as 
one of our larger States, we have in easy reach a 
population equal to that of the United States. It is 
an alluvial region and swarm^s v/itli human souls. 

Take a hundred and fifty miles so^uare about the 
mouth of the Mississippi river ; suppose all its swamps 
to have been drained, and canals running in every 
direction through it, not more than eight or ten miles 
apart; then suppose a family to every twenty acres of 
it, and four cities of from five to seven hundred 
thousand inhabitants in it ; and then other towns and 
cities — I know not how many — of from five to 
seventy-five or one hundred thousand inhabitants, 
and you will have a picture of the country immedi- 
ately accessible to Shanghai. There could be no 
better base of operations. We must have been 
guided by Providence in the selection. Then, i-n 
this immediate region, and covering a large area, 
there is no other Methodist Mission but ours. 

What a compact Annual Conference might be 
formed here, with the easy communication of the 
canals for itinerating purposes. The preachers 
might come in to attend the session for a hundred 
miles in every direction, at a cost of from three to 
five dollars each, the round trip — and this would 
include eating and sleeping. 

My plan is for our Church to keep to this field. 



134 LAST DAYS IN CHINA. 

Go nowhere else outside of America. Enlarge here^ 
instead of going to Japan, Siam, Persia, or anywhere 
else. Enlarge here, and make a Conference, so that 
our brethren may have all that great advantage there 
is in numbers and annual sessions, kindling enthusi- 
asm and imparting courage. Put them in a condi- 
tion that will create an esprit de corps. Let them 
have the inspiration there is in the fellowship of 
saints. 

But is there any hope of large success? Practical 
men will ask this question. I answer first, the Lord 
has commanded us to go into all the world and 
preach the gospel to every creature, and go we must, 
irrespective of consequences, which we are to leave 
to him. I answer, also, secondly : Yes ! Up to this 
time our success has been all we had any right to 
expect, in view of our feeble and intermittent labors, 
and the prospect of success brightens with every 
year. With twenty missionaries in the field, and ten 
schools, we would soon have fifty native helpers and 
hundreds and thousands of converts. 

But we cannot send twenty at once. No, cer- 
tainly ; but we can send two or three additional ones 
every year until we reach the number. 

But Mexico calls for more money; Brazil calls for 
more ; Key West calls for more ; the West calls for 
more; China calls for more, and the collections are 
falling off, for the times are hard, money is scarce, 
and the Church feels but little interest for the souls 
of men. May God be merciful to us ! O, my breth- 
ren, let us come up to the help of the Lord against 
the mighty ! 



IN MEMORIAM. I35 

We want ;^ 100,000 for the American continent, and 
;^20,ooo for China. 

The Presbyterian Church, in addition to all its 
fields in other parts of the world, has forty mission- 
aries in China alone, and we, with no other missions 
in this hemisphere, have — one, two, three — only 
three ! 

I rejoice in fraternity, I rejoice in a growing census, 
I rejoice in numerous and prosperous institutions of 
learning, I rejoice in church-building and parsonage- 
building at home ; but I weep and mourn over the 
little we are doing for the salvation of the people that 
sit in darkness and the shadow of death. 



CHAPTE.R XII. 

IN MEMORIAM. 

I COULD not think of leaving China until I had 
seen two graves. 

In company with Mrs. Lambuth, I went this 
afternoon, first, to the new English cemetery. The 
grounds are beautifully ornamented and well-kept, 
being pleasantly situated in one of the best suburbs 
of the city. In one of the most eligible parts of the 



136 IN MEMORIAM. 

grounds, on a principal avenue, we came upon an 
elegant marble monument, bearing the following 
inscription, which I give without preserving the form 
in which the lines are carved : 

" Sacred to the memory of Benjamin Jenkins, 
D.D., born June 16, 1814; died March 13, 1871. 

" He was fourteen years a missionary of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, South, and seven years in 
the consular service of the United States of America, 
at this port. 

" He was highly respected by a wide circle of 
friends, as a Christian of earnest and unassuming 
piety, a scholar of large and varied attainments, and 
a public officer, faithful and zealous in the dis- 
charge of his duties. 

"'Absent from the body, present with the Lord.' 

" ' If a man die, shall he live again? ' " 

The Dottor was first buried in the old cemetery, 
but his widow had the remains removed to this one, 
and the monument was erected by his son. We con- 
templated the grave with tender interest, and felt 
that the Church was honored by the presence of one 
of her earliest messengers to China, Avho sleeps so 
far away from his brethren, consecrating the soil on 
which he came to preach Christ and the resur- 
rection. 

We then proceeded to the old cemetery, and 
found it full of monuments. But it is well-preserved 
and carefully kept. We soon found a massive 
granite monument in the form of a sarcophagus. 
On the slab are these words : " Helen Morphis 
Wood, wife of Rev. M. L. Wood, Missionary to 
China. Born in North Carohna, U. S. A., Jan. 7, 



IN MEMORIAM. 1 3/ 

1836; departed this life in Shanghai, March lO, 
1864. 'To die is gain.' " 

So for the love of Christ she came ten thousand 
miles from home, and died in a land of strangers. 
But what does it concern us where we die, if only we 
die in the Lord? I thought of the bereaved husband 
and motherless children, leaning on the arm of God 
where there was nothing else to lean upon. But it 
was an Almighty support, and ''the light of the 
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus 
Christ" shone as full here as in America. 

We saw, also, the graves of four of our Brother 
Allen's little ones, who just tasted life in a pagan 
land, to be removed to the Father's house and enter 
into life eternal. 

Thus the Church is bound to China by the mys- 
teries both of life and death. We have six bodies 
planted here for the resurrection. Besides these, 
there are several native Christians of our Communion 
sleeping here, among them two native helpers — the 
noble and lamented Liew (James O. Andrew he was 
named by us), and one whose name I do not recall. 

In reflecting upon this, the great future sweeps 
into vision before me. Shall not our Zion have a 
host to come up at last from this Empire, the Ameri- 
can missionary and the pagan convert rising together 
from the same dust, and haiUng the descending Lord 
with a mingled shout, responding to his voice? for 
"the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a 
shout" when He comes to gather His redeemed from 
the four corners of the earth. 

O ! the blessed toil of the missionary ! What if he 



138 FROM SHANGHAI TO CANTON. 

is unheeded by tens of thousands of the bHnd 
heathen to whom he hfts up his voice ? Some hear 
and are saved, and the number is swelled in an ever- 
increasing ratio. China will turn to the Lord! I feel 
it ; I almost see it. What if he is half-forgotten at 
home ? He is never forgotten in heaven. There 
is an eye that follows him with love by night and by 
day, the eye that never slumbers. 

How I would love to labor and die here among 
these missionaries of the cross ! How I would love 
to rise at the last day in the midst of a multitude of 
heathen converts ! 



CHAPTER XHI. 

FROM SHANGHAI TO CANTON. 

ON FRIDAY, January 12, we had early break- 
fast, and went on board the steamer Geelong, 
accompanied to the Bund by Mr. Allen and the 
native preachers, where we took an affectionate leave 
of them, I have them daguerreotyped upon my 
memory still, as they stood there watching our de- 
parture, May the peace of Go4 abid^ with them \ 
Mr. Lambuth and Mr, J^arker accompanied us on 
board of our .ship, which was m^honA om% in tb§ 



FROM SHANGHAI TO CANTON. 1 39 

harbor. After affectionate leave-taking, they de- 
scended to their sampans, and we watched them, as 
they rowed away to the shore, with no Httle 
emotion. Our hearts were knit to them by the 
strongest ties. 

Our anchor was soon raised, and we steamed down 
the Wongdoo, twelve miles, into the Yang Tse, and 
down that to the great ocean. We were favored by 
the north-east monsoon, and, with all sail up, what 
with wind and steam, we fairly split the waves, and 
dashed away southward, committing ourselves to the 
care of God. 

Our ship is not a very large one, but staunch and 
trim, a first-rate sea-boat, and makes excellent head- 
way. She is a screw-propeller — the first of her class 
we have been on. Her English officers are genuine 
gentlemen, communicative and accommodating in 
the highest degree. The "Lascars" — sailors — are 
East Indian Mohammedans. The coal is handled by 
unmitigated Zanzibar negroes. The steward and 
waiters are English. There are but few passengers, 
so that each one has a state-room to himself — a great 
comfort in sea-going vessels. By Sunday the waves 
were running briskly under a stiff breeze, and the top 
of one made a dash at my window, but did not quite 
break it, though quite a sprinkling of the brine got in 
through the cracks. No great damage done. Our 
ship behaves admirably. We were told we should 
be at Plong Kong by daylight. 

In the afternoon of Sunday we saw our captain, 
with his eye-glasses, peering out to landward, anx- 
iously. This went on so long as to excite attention, 
and we learned, on inquiry, that, according to the 



I4O li-ROM SHANGHAI TO CANTON. 

ship's reckonings, land ought to be in sight, but was 
not. There had been some error, evidently, the re- 
sult, probably, of ocean currents, which are very 
strong in these seas. Monday morning we were up 
early, hoping to catch the Canton boat at 8 o'clock, 
when, to our surprise, we were still out of sight of 
land. There was a heavy nrst, and, to be certain to 
avoid some treacherous shoals, our captain had borne 
seaward during the night, and now did not know ex- 
actly where he was. So we were lost — ^just a liLtle. 
However, some bold headlands soon showed them- 
selves, our whereabouts was determined, and by noon 
we cast anchor in front of the city of ''Victoria," 
commonly called Hong Kong. 

It is built on an island, separated from the main 
land by a strip of water two or three miles wide. 
The island is not more than twelve or fifteen miles 
long, I believe, by seven or eight wide, and was 
ceded to Great Britain in 1842. Since then a strip 
of land across the channel, on the main land, has 
been ceded, also, for police purposes. The island is 
a mountain, seventeen or eighteen hundred feet high. 
On the slope between the water and the mountain 
the city is built, and contains some two thousand 
foreigners, and something less than two hundred 
thousand Chinese. It is a great commercial center, 
and adds not a little to the prestige of Great Britain 
in the East. In the style of its streets and buildings 
it is a cross between English and Chinese. As it 
lies on the slope, it presents an aspect of great 
beauty as seen from the sea, especially at night, 
when the streets and houses are all lighted up. 

We soon got into a sampan and went ashore. Our 



FROM SHANGHAI TO CANTON. I4I 

first point was the post-office, where letters from home 
were awaiting us. Over the door of the post-office 
these words greeted us, cut in stone: "As cold 
waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far 
country." So we found it, indeed. All well at hom.e ! 
God is merciful to us still, as in times past. Let Flis 
name be praised ! From the post-office we called on 
the United States Consul, Mr. Bailey, a very pleasant 
gentleman, with whom we spent a half-hour most 
delightfully. He extended to us the courtesy of an 
invitation to call on his family, which we intended to 
do, but circumstances prevented it. We had letters, 
also, to Sir John Smale, Chief Justice of Hong Kong. 
Accordingly, we called, but found him out, to our 
regret, as we had every reason to entertain a high 
regard for him. 

A long walk through the business parts of the city 
revealed a scene of wonderful activity, which I can- 
not describe. It is to be borne in mind that there is 
no such thing in this country as manufacturing by 
machinery. Every thing is made by hand, and the 
shops, all open in front, are upon the edge of the 
narrow street. When I say all open, I do not mean 
that there is an open door into them, but that the 
entite front is open. In the region of shops, where 
carpenters, cabinet-makers, blacksmiths, copper- 
smiths, brass-smiths, tinners, shoemakers, and many 
others are in full blast, the racket is almost deafening. 
They are huddled close, only a thin partition sep- 
arating two shops, so that within a small compass, 
on each side of the narrow street, many diverse 
employments and noises greet the eye and ear. 

A circuitous road has been made which makes the 



142 FROM SHANGHAI TO CANTON. 

ascent of the steep mountain, in the rear of the city, 
very practicable, and we should have climbed to the 
summit but that the atmosphere was obscured by 
fogs, so that the view would have been very limited. 

The return walk we made along the Bund, for the 
purpose of making inquiry about the Canton boat, 
for our ship was to remain at this port long enough 
to enable us to visit that city. There was a count- 
less multitude of junks and native boats lying near 
the shore, and several large men-of-war, of various 
nations, with merchant steamers not a few, anchored 
farther out. As we walked slowly along we saw a 
great steamer swing from her moorings, and move 
grandly away. It was the Tokio, bound for San 
Francisco. By the courtesy of the Consul we had 
been able to get letters on board of her at the last 
moment. She was, therefore, a link between us and 
our loved ones, and our eyes followed her with 
affection. 

We found that there were two boats for Canton, 
maintaining a sharp competition. First-class passage 
had been reduced from five dollars to one, and steer- 
age from one dollar to ten cents. The Chinese 
nearly all go steerage, and while rates are so low they 
go in crowds — as many as can crowd in. The gov- 
ernment of Hong Kong has had to interfere, and 
limit the number to seven hundred. 

Toward dusk we took a sampan and returned on 
board the Geelong for the night. The " sampan " 
deserves a passing remark. It is the size of a large 
skiff, but constructed differently, being longer, and, 
toward the bow, more pointed. It has a floor laid 
two or three inches below the upper edge. In the 



FROM SHANGHAI TO CANTON. I43 

widest part, which is nearer the aft-part than the 
bow, there is a square opening in the floor, and 
around this the floor serves as a convenient seat, with 
sufficient space to accommodate four or five persons. 
Over this part there is a circular covering, made of 
bamboo sHts, or some sort of matting. There are 
trap-doors through the floor, and under it many 
things can be stowed away. 

Many of these sampans belong to families, and 
serve the double purpose of a residence and a means 
of subsistence. The family live upon it, and navigate 
it about the harbor on any errand that may offer. 
The wife or daughter is quite as skillful and ener- 
getic in managing it as the man. They have a mast 
and a little sail for use when the wind favors, in which 
case, with sail and oar, they make fine speed. 
Usually the wife holds the rudder and the husband 
manages the sail and oar; but when there are chil- 
dren large enough to aid there are two or three at 
the oars, and I have seen a woman, with a child 
strapped upon her back, using the oar, or spread- 
ing or lowering the sail, or using the bamboo- 
pole with great energy. The bamboo-pole has 
an iron point and hook at the lower extremity, and 
is used in shallow water, or when way must be made 
through a press of boats. 

When a ship comes to anchor in the harbor these 
little crafts swarm around it, the strongest or most 
dexterous getting first to the foot of the ladder. You 
get into one and go to any part of the harbor for ten 
cents--^\.^x\. .cents ^ trip, ;tbat is, not ten cents a pas- 
senger — so that if 'there are four or five pas.se.nger,f 
(each goe^ /pr two ojr Ibre^ centjp. 



144 FROM SHANGHAI TO CANTON. 

At six o'clock on Tuesday the steward gave us a 
special breakfast, and by seven we were on board the 
Canton boat. Outside it resembled a Mississippi 
steamboat, but the internal arrangements were quite 
different. There are never many foreigners trLiveling 
at one time here, but there is a small cabin for them 
especially, very elegantly furnished and carpeted. 
H., myself, and one Englishman, were the only occu- 
pants on. this trip, except the officers, who were Eng- 
lishmen, and very polite. The officers of the rival 
boat, v/e learned afterward, were Americans. 

Th^ first thing we observed when we got to our 
cabin was a number of muskets, pistols, and sabers, 
ready for use. On inquiry we learned that the reason 
of this was that about two years ago one of the boats, 
on a trip to Macao, was understood to have eighty 
thousand dollars on board. A company of Chinese 
took passage — no unusual thing — but these fellows, 
as it turned out, were veteran robbers. On the way 
they killed the captain, seized the money — whxh 
turned out to be but thirty-five thousand dollars — 
compelled the engineer to land the boat, and made 
off with their booty. They made good their escape, 
and have never been heard of. This exploit would 
have done credit to the great railroad and bank- 
robbers of America. 

We had been invited to Canton by the Rev. Dr. 
Happer, of the Presbyterian Mission at that place. 
By a little inadvertency he failed to meet us on the 
boat — and we, not knowing that he had received our 
letters, took a sampan and started for his house. 
But he was soon on our track, and, by taking a ''near 
cut," overtook us. What a cordial greeting ! How 



FROM SHANGHAI TO CANTON. I45 

deep and abounding is the fellowship of saints among 
these missionaries ! 

Our time in Canton was necessarily limited. We 
had felt it our duty, as it had been our pleasure, to 
spend as much time as possible with the brethren of 
our own Church, and now we must hasten. We were 
to proceed on our way on the Geelong, and she was 
to leave on Thursday, at 12 M. sharp. It was now 
Tuesday, 3 p. m., and the next morning at 9 our boat 
would return to Hong Kong, We had no time to 
lose. 

Upon a programme, hastily -sketched by Dr. Hap- 
per, we undertook to get a bird's-eye view of this, 
one of the greatest cities of the Empire. So we took 
chairs. A man does not take a chair here for the 
same purpose as in America — that is, not always ; for 
sometimes he takes a sedan-chair, in which case the 
chair takes him, rather. If he is going a short dis- 
tance only, the chair is borne by two men ; but as we 
were going to take a heavy tramp, we took three 
men each. We proceeded to the only hill in the 
city, and ascended the five-story pagoda on the wall 
where it crosses the hill. From this elevation the 
view is very fine. Southward is the city, containing 
a full million of human souls. Westward is a beauti- 
ful reach of country, covered with vegetable gardens, 
all green, and striped with water-courses. Northward 
are hills, rising in the distance into mountains. The 
nearer hills constitute one vast, but unsightly, ceme- 
tery, relieved by no marble nor any shrubbery — a 
vast reach of low, irregular earth-moundso 

This collection of all the graves into a cemetery is 
a contrast with the custom farther north, where every 



146 FROM SHANGHAI TO CANTON. 

family buries Its dead in its own grounds, and only 
paupers and strangers are placed together in a com- 
mon ground. Every little farm of a few acres has its 
cluster of graves, which are irregular mounds of 
earth generally, though sometimes made of brick. 
At a little distance they seem to be as thick as 
shocks of hay in a meadow. In my drives around 
Shanghai, and in the trip to Soochow and Hangchow, 
I saw millions on millions of them. They actually 
occupy a large proportion of the tillable soil of the 
country. I was glad to find here at Canton a sepa- 
rate cemetery, though it is so bald and dreary- 
looking. 

From this point we walked around on the city-wall 
to the east gate, sending our chairs ahead to meet us. 
On our way we passed the great Examination Hall, 
which will accommodate ten thousand students. At 
the season of examinations the stalls are filled, and 
booths erected to accommodate two thousand more. 

During the examination each student enters a stall, 
which is large enough to accommodate only one ; a 
thesis is given him, and there he sits until he has fin- 
ished his writing. The tests by which the perform- 
ance is judged are, conformity to the classical stand- 
ards, elegance of style, and accuracy of writing. A 
very high standard is required in order to pass to a 
degree. Dr. Happer told me that, at a recent exam- 
ination, an acquaintance of his produced a thesis that 
was approved in every respect, only that 07ie charac- 
ter was made wrong— -inadvertently^^a mere lapsiLS 
pen7icB-~-hi\t that wa? fatal, A man who fails may 
repeat the trial oyer and over ad libitum, and now 
.and theii pn^ .l??eps up Jthe effort until .his head ii 



FROM SHANGHAI TO CANTON. I47 

gray. If a young man succeeds In reaching the 
highest honors it is the occasion of the most extrav- 
agant congratulation. Returning to his native place 
he is received with the highest marks of distinction. 
His family becomes honorable in the public regard, 
and the most exalted rank in the offices of the Em^ 
pire is open to him, as he is now in the way of pro- 
motion ; but the poor fellow who tries and fails is 
overwhelmed with grief and shame. 

After dinner the Rev. Mr. Pearcy, of the Wesleyan 
Mission, and the Rev. Mr. Graves, of the Baptist 
Mission, called on us. These brethren gave us much 
valuable information. I was doubly glad to see Mr. 
Graves, as he is very nearly related to my friends, 
the Bakers, of Baltimore. 

In the course of the evening we learned that there 
would be a steamer leaving at 3 or 4 p. m. for Hong 
Kong. This would give us another half-day in Can- 
ton, and it was arranged that we should take tiffin 
with Mr. Pearcy, and then meet with the resident 
missionaries at his house. The morning we devoted 
to seeing some of the finest parts of the city, and 
visiting the hospital, and the temple of the Five 
Hundred Sages. There are actually five hundred 
images, and the faces are of the Indian, not the 
Chinese type. They are said to be representations 
of five hundred of the most celebrated disciples of 
Buddha. The features are very good, and there is 
every variety of expression. One old fellow is rep- 
resented as playing with his children, some of them 
being on his knee, one climbing up behind him, and 
one taking great liberties with his beard, while he is 



148 FROM SHANGHAI TO CANTON. 

enjoying the fun, and fairly splitting himself with 
laughter. 

But what we enjoyed infinitely more than all this 
was the morning prayers in Dr. Happer's chapel. 
The native helpers and others assemble here every 
morning at half-past 6 o'clock for worship. It is the 
best Protestant chapel I have seen in China — and 
there is one peculiarity in its construction that is 
worthy of mention : a partition, six feet high, runs 
through the middle of it. This is to meet the de- 
mand for seclusion on the part of the better class of 
Chinese women. 

The worship was earnest, and I felt that it was 
good to be there. Some fifteen or twenty men were 
present, and two elderly women, one of whom, hav- 
ing been cast off by her family for becoming a Chris- 
tian, has been obliged to find a home on the Mission- 
premises. 

At half-past I o'clock the parlor at Mr. Pearcy's 
was well filled. I regretted that we had not time for 
a longer interview, that I might have got a large 
statement of facts and expression of views, such as 
we had had from the assembled missionaries, both at 
Tokio and Shanghai. Having but an hour together, 
we concluded to spend it in prayer, with a brief ex- 
hortation. God was with us. The place became the 
gate of heaven. The atmosphere v/as tremulous with 
the voice of Him who was dead and is alive again. 
His word came again to every heart, *' Lo, I am with 
you aUvay, even unto the end of the world." 

But we must needs hasten, for the time was short. 
Our dear friend and host, Dr. Happer, who seemed 
to us as if we had known him all our lives, aceom- 



FROM SHANGHAI TO CANTON. I49 

panied us to the vessel, where we found steam up 
already. Parting was approached with reluctance 
on both sides, and we left Canton feeling that we had 
formed incipient friendships here to be consummated 
in eternity. 

On the deck of the China, of Hamburg, we floated 
down Pearl river, and gazed at this great city of 
1,000,000 souls — 100,000 of whom live in their boats. 
Only think of it — eating, sleeping and rearing chil- 
dren in these little boats. 

Both here and at Hong Kong we saw many men 
at hard labor, naked, except for a strip of cotton 
goods around the loins. Many are barefooted. We 
are approaching the tropics. If we are prospered in 
the way we shall see no more winter — ^t id it is very 
little we have seen; for, up to the time of our leaving 
Shanghai, the weather had been exceptionally good, 
though the air there is damp, and one feels chilled 
when the mercury is not very low. 

At daybreak we found ourselves in Hong Kong 
harbor again. Sampans in abundance were within 
call, and we bounded over the waves, for the wind was 
high, till our dexterous boatman hooked the ladder of 
the Geelong with his bamboo-pole, holding fast till 
we ascended. Correspondence v/as finished up by 
breakfast-time, after which Mr. Hendrix took it off 
to the post-office. Having a pretty bad attack of 
rheumatism, I remained on board, which I almost 
regretted when H. returned, reporting that the mast 
of his sampan was broken off, so strong was the 
wind, and that the well-regulated sampan family 
behaved with the utmost propriety. There was no 
screaming, ao confusion; "hwl materfamilias 6^\di every 



150 FROM SHANGHAI TO CANTON. 

thing just right, and just at the right time, till the 
mast and sail, which were overboard, were recovered. 
Such meet help do these help meets render. H. 
confesses that he felt serious, for he thought the sit- 
uation a grave one. I regretted that I was not with 
him, for I have always thought it a desirable thing 
to have been iii a bad storm at sea. Note the tense. 

At noon we were fairly under headway for Singa- 
pore. We have seen our last of China. 'We leave 
it with emotion. We never enjoyed ''communion of 
saints" more than with the Christians here, both 
native and foreign. We have never experienced a 
richer hospitality. We discovered some admirable 
traits, even among the heathen. 

But the land is wholly given to idolatry — it lies in 
the shadow of death. The few missionary stations 
are like specks of light in the illimitable blackness. 
The day has scarcely dawned. There are 12,000 
native converts against nearly or quite 400,000,000. 
Sometimes, when I think of such a mighty and com- 
pact empire of Satan, a horror of great darkness falls 
upon my soul. It is the place where the wicked 
one has his great stronghold now. He dominates it 
with an art and power that I have not been able to 
bring out in any adequate way in this correspon- 
dence. A near view of it is appalling. It is the most 
fearful spiritual condition that my imagination has 
ever conceived. After careful inquiry among the 
most intelligent men, and those longest resident here, 
I am satisfied that China is literally without God — 
gods many and lords many there are ; but of the Infin- 
ite and Holy Being who is the Creator of all things 
and Judge of all men, they have no knowledge. They 



FROM SHANGHAI TO CANTON. I5I 

worship their own grotesque inventions — creatures 
of their own fancy, the miserable product of their 
own depraved imagination. The black plague of 
depravity is in it all. The degradation of it is unut- 
terable, and the gloom and despair of multitudes of 
these worshipers is enough to melt the very rocks. 

Canton is in many respects and by far, the finest, 
as it is the largest, Chinese city we have seen. Soo- 
chow and Hangchow were, perhaps, as large before 
the insurrection, but they were terribly depopulated 
by the war, and have not yet recovered their former 
greatness ; nor were they ever anything like so well 
built as Canton. Some of the best brick-work I 
ever saw is here. The most perfect of pressed brick 
is laid in mortar, spread so thin that it looks like a 
thread of white running from one end of the wall to 
the other. The face of the wall is very beautiful, 
though the brick is not red like St. Louis brick, nor 
has it the beautiful brownish tint of some I have 
seen about Nashville, but approaches a lead-color. 
Of course it is only the finest houses that are so 
elegantly built, there being a great deal of coarse 
and irregular work. There are the same very nar- 
row streets here as elsewhere, but they are cleaner; 
and though the odors are bad enough, yet they do 
not come up to those of the other cities we have 
visited. The shops are larger, and the stocks of 
goods better than we have seen elsewhere. 

There are less than five hundred native Christians 
in the city, and they are nearly all in the Presby- 
terian, Wesleyan and Baptist Churches, Several 
caoes of great interest were related by Dr. Happer, 
t)ut J h^y^. .not room to detail them hers, Growth i^ 



152 FROM SHANGHAI TO CANTON. 

not rapid, but healthy and steady, and the brethren 
rejoice in brightening prospects from year to year. 

The evangeUzation of China proceeds quietly, but 
moves forward with divine energy. The greatest 
changes are prepared silently. The meteorological 
conditions that introduce the cyclone are noiseless. 
The rays that loosen the iceberg from the mass upon 
which it was formed are unobserved. Cataclysms 
are the outcome of silent forces. So Christian ideas 
are making their way in China. Far beyond the 
range of apparent results these vital truths are insin- 
uating themselves into the minds of men, and God's 
word accomplishes that whereunto it is sent. The 
great event is coming. China will bend the knee to 
the Son of God. 

When the issue will appear no man can know. 
Let the universal Church cry to God that he may 
hasten it in his time. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



SINGAPORE. 



ON THE NIGHT of January 23, we dropped 
anchor in the harbor of Singapore, and early 
in the morning of the 24th steamed up to the P. 
and O. Company's wharf, which is two and a half 
miles from the city. The steward gave us breakfast 
at 8 o'clock — an hour earlier than usual — and H. and 
I took a gharry and started off to see the town. The 
'* gharry " is a one-horse vehicle, with a singular- 
looking body, which is an oblong square in shape, 
with seats for four persons. It is drawn by one 
horse, usually a small pony, though we saw a few 
horses of good size, and, in general appearance, 
much like American horses. But the ponies com- 
monly in use seem ridiculously small compared with 
the size of the carriage and the weight of the load; 
but the roads hereabouts are firm and level, and the 
little creatures do their work very well. 

In the gharry the seat of the driver is a piece of 
board a foot square, in front, very near the horse, 
with only the shafts for his feet to rest upon. Our 
pony, this morning, was parti-colored, bay and 
white. This is quite common among them, and, so 
far as our observation extends, the bay color prevails 
over the neck and shoulders, and the white over the 
rest of the body. Our driver started off on a trot, 



154 SINGAPORE. 

leading his pony, but soon mounted without check- 
ing speed, and on we drove along a beautiful road, 
bordered by tropical foliage, to see the wonders of a 
new w^orld. We saw more than we can tell. The 
palm-tree is here in all its glory. There is the cocoa- 
palm, the cabbage-palm, the fan-palm, and other 
species that I cannot name. The most beautiful tree 
I ever saw is the fan-palm, the foliage of which 
spreads out from the top of the stem like a fan. A 
species of bay abounds, Avith foliage closely resem- 
bling that of the magnolia, and another species with 
leaves much larger, though similar in other respects. 
Wild flowers abound ; vegetation is luxuriant, and 
the general aspect of the forest answers my expecta- 
tation perfectly. 

Once on the road we found comers and goers in 
abundance, as might be expected in the near neigh- 
borhood of a large city. One of the first things we 
saw was what we never saw in China, and but rarely 
in Japan — native-wheeled vehicles.* Besides the 
gharry we met numerous ox-carts, drawn by the 
very ox we have seen in pictures — the Burmese ox 
— with a hump on his shoulders. A few we saw 
drawn by one in shafts, but they are generally drawn 
by two. The yoke is a very primitive affair, being a 
smooth straight pole. 

The people we met were Malays, the natives of 
the country, Tamils, from Madras, Europeans, chiefly 
English, and Chinese. The Chinese outnumber all 
the rest, and the business of the place is largely in 
their hands. 



*There are rude wheeled vehicles in some parts of China, but none in 
the region of Shanghai except the jinrikisha and wheelbarrow. 



SINGAPORE. 155 

We drove to the American Consulate, but were 
warned off by the words, '' Business-hours from 10 
A. M. to 5 p. M." It was now but a Httle after 9. So 
we drove to the Bank, thinking to get a httle money. 
''Business from 10 A. m. to 3 p. m." Well, by law, 
we can keep a gharry all day for ;^i.50, or eight 
hours for ;^i.25 ; so we will see something. " Take us 
along the Bund." A fine rock-wall faces the sea on 
our right, and business-houses, at once elegant and 
massive, tower upon our left. H. recognizes the 
name of a banker on his sign as one mentioned in 
the list given with his letter of credit, and stops and 
transacts his business, getting, also, much valuable 
information about the place. Back to the Consulate. 
Our cards are answered, *' Will the gentlemen call in 
half an hour? the Major is indisposed, and is about 
taking his bawihy So we leave the Major to his 
bath ; for, truth to say, it is not yet quite 10, and we 
ought to have been more considerate than to call at 
such an hour. Without further delay, we drove out 
to the Botanical and Zoological Gardens, three miles 
from the Bund. The road is a beautiful one, well 
improved, and bordered with trees, which make a 
very pretty avenue, and passes some fine bungalows. 
A mile or so to the right, on the principal elevation 
in the neighborhood, is a fine mansion, the residence 
of the Governor. 

We witnessed, also, a characteristic scene — a large 
native laundry. Bordering the road at one point is 
a small water-course. The bed of it seems to have 
bee.a deepened at one point for a distance of thirty or 
fort}' yards, so as to give the water a depth of two 
feet or more, and in this part the current is very 



156 SINGAPORE. 

slight. In the edge of the water, on the side farthest 
from the road, large square stones are laid at inter- 
vals of, say, twenty feet. The soiled clothes lie 
soaking in the water, which has a muddy look. How 
long they have been a-soak I know not. The wash- 
^xmen stand by the stones, and, swinging the 
dripping clothes over their heads, bring them down 
upon the stones with great force. Washing is done 
much the same way in China. In all these coun- 
tries it is cheap — thirty or forty cents a dozen — 
but in the end it is dear, for no linen can stand this 
usage long. In connection with the laundry I have 
been describing, there is a lawn of perhaps three 
acres, the grass being cut short, on which the drying 
is done. When we passed it was covered. Some 
pieces were spread out on the sward, and some hung 
on lines— all of it was white as snow. 

The gardens we went to visit were new. They are 
well laid off, and if you have a day on your hands it 
is well worth while to see them. We saw a good 
deal of rare shrubbery, with the scientific name writ- 
ten on boards. It would have cost us but little labor 
to copy these and insert them here, in which case the 
reader might have supposed that we were well up in 
the science of botany, but otherwise he would have 
been little the wiser. The grounds are pleasantly un- 
dulating, with walks well-arranged, and a good deal of 
work being done — or doing, if you prefer. In a shal- 
low pond there was the sacred lotus, made so much 
of by the Buddhists, and which is, for all the world, 
like the pond-lily I have seen so often at home — foli- 
age, flower, and all. Another water-plant here v/as 
much more striking — the ''Victoria Regia," having a 



SINGAPORE. 157 

leaf that spreads out flat on the surface of the water, 
round as a plate, and turned up square at the edges 
an inch or two, making a broad, shallow cup. I saw 
one that was four and a half feet in diameter, but 
that was in a private garden which we visited in the 
afternoon. 

We saw here, also, the celebrated banyan-tree, 
which drops roots down from its branches, so as to 
make numerous stems. It is a striking object. 

There is also a beautiful lake, on which we saw 
the pelican, the black swan, and a very peculiar 
species of duck. The black swan is very beautiful 
indeed, the long feathers of the wing lying like 
ruffles on each side of the tail. 

Near the pond was a stable, containing another 
creature which was 7iot beautiful. It was the rhinoc- 
eros. He was feeding on a mass of stems and leaves 
from some sort of tree, and was standing in the door 
of his stable, partly in the stable, and having his 
head out, there being a small area in front, inclosed 
by a plank fence. He was very gentle, and we had 
a fine opportunity of examining his disgusting body. 
His head and neck seemed to me to be suffering 
from a cutaneous disease; but H. thought it was 
natural. 

In another part of the garden is a monstrous tiger, 
and two leopards. The leopards are beauties, and 
so is the tiger; but he is heavier and less agile-look- 
ing than I had expected to see. You ought to have 
heard his growl as we passed his cage. It was 
something sublime — if sublimity may be predicated 
of any such thing as a growl. 

There is quite a variety of monkeys, also, with all 



158 SINGAPORE. 

the burlesque intelligence of their species. What 
horrible caricatures of the human face their features 
are ! But the most varied and interesting collection 
is that of birds. There is quite a variety of parrots 
and pheasants of very brilliant plumage. But what 
struck me most was several varieties of chickens, in 
general form and habits just like our domestic hen, 
with feathers as richly colored as those of the pea- 
cock — indeed, much more so in the male. They 
were beauties. 

A yard of a quarter of an acre was devoted to 
one emu, which resembles the ostrich in a general 
way, but is not so large, and is of a much darker 
color. When we came upon him he was sitting erect 
— that is, he had dropped back on his legs, the whole 
length of the naked part of which was lying along on 
the ground, the body being held erect — and he was 
drinking water out of a vessel. We had to throw 
two or three clods at him before he would stir. In 
an adjoining lot were two ostriches, just such as we 
see in pictures. They were fine, stately fellows, and 
I could well believe all I had heard of their capacity 
for running. 

We drove back to the city, and took "tiffin" at 
the *' Hotel de Europe." While waiting for this we 
improved the half-hour in calling upon the Consul 
again. He is a German, and in quite ill-health — the 
effect of the climate. He is evidently addressing 
himself to his duties in an earnest way. In answer 
to some question about the country and people, he 
said, *' Why ! haf you not read my annual repoorts to 
de Goofernment? I haf explain all dese tings very 
full." What could we say? Alas for us, we had not 



SINGAPORE. 159 

read a single line of ''de repoorts." We made our 
call short; for though the Major was good-natured, 
he was evidently suffering. But he did us good ser- 
vice in sending a note to Mr. Whampoa, whose pri- 
vate garden we desired to visit, recommending us to 
the especial regards of that gentleman. 

Whampoa is a very distinguished Chinaman. He 
is a leading merchant of Singapore, and has accumu- 
lated a vast fortune. The Russian Government has 
appointed him Vice-Consul of the Empire at Singa- 
pore, where he has resided the greater part of his life. 
He speaks the English language with great ease and 
purity. His residence is two miles from town, where 
he has an elegant mansion, surrounded by fine 
grounds, which constitute one of the chief points of 
interest at this place. 

Passing along a street, we found ourselves near his 
place of business. His sign is very unpretending, 
being in English character, of a small size, " Mr. 
Whampoa's Office." We concluded to pay our 
respects to him in his office, and so sent him our 
cards. We found him an elderly man, almost de- 
crepit; but he received us with a courtesy that was 
very elegant, and even courtly, telling us that he had 
received a private note from the American Consul 
commending us to his especial consideration, and that 
he would be most happy to serve us in any way. 
We replied that we desired only to see his grounds, 
of which we had heard so much. He invited us to 
call at 5 o'clock, when he would be at home to re- 
ceive us. 

Any one can see these grounds, even in his 
absence, but we had access, also, to the more private 



l60 SINGAPORE. 

gardens, and to the Interior of the house. The most 
remarkable thing here is the representation of vari- 
ous objects in shrubbery. Here is a piece of shrub- 
bery trained to represent a dog, there another in the 
form of an elephant, a gharry, a hog, a bird, or any 
object you may fancy. One of the dogs we saw was 
in the attitude of barking furiously. A deer had 
just been startled from its feeding, and stood in the 
attitude of alarm, with its head turned as if to scan 
the landscape and detect an enemy. Birds were in 
flight, some of them, and some at rest. One shrub 
represented a large vase with a plant growing in it. 
Then there were pagodas, and many other things. 
All this is effected by making a wire frame represent- 
ing the object, and training over it a species of box 
which covers it completely, following the wire 
closely, and concealing it, while yet the outline is 
perfectly preserved. 

But I saw a cedar trimmed so as to represent 
monkeys, without the aid of wire. This was in the 
Parsee garden at Shanghai. 

From the garden, Mr. Whampoa took us to a 
back-yard, where we saw his fine poultry. While we 
were looking at this, a very small pet deer came up 
to us in the most confident way. " They all know 
me," said Mr. Whampoa, with an evident feeling of 
satisfaction. Just then we were startled by an 
animal which came hopping along on its hind legs, 
the fore-legs being ridiculously short, and rarely ever 
touching the ground. I recognized the kangaroo 
instantly, though I had never seen him before, ex- 
cept in pictures. He was from Australia, as the 
little deer was from Ceylon. In a cage near by was 



SINGAPORE. l6l 

a small black bear with a yellow streak under its 
neck in the shape of a horse-shoe. He was from 
Borneo. Another animal that interested us much 
was the ** mouse-deer," a little creature scarcely 
larger than a rat, though taller, being a perfect deer 
in shape. He was running from one end of his pen 
to the other, at full speed, as long as I looked at him. 

Then there were the golden and silver pheasants, 
perfect beauties, the mandarin duck, and a most re- 
markable web-footed fowl with a long, slender bill. 
They call it a duck, but really it seemed to me to 
have very little in common with the duck, except its" 
web-foot. 

He then took us into his dining-room, showed us 
the kitchen, which we did not enter, and took us 
through the hall. In the dining-room and hall are 
many objects of interest which I will not take time 
to enumerate. He then took us up stairs into the 
parlors and sitting-rooms, where were many fine 
things, some of them presents from distinguished 
men in Japan, Siam, and China. The Emperor of 
China has constituted him a Mandarin, and when H. 
referred to the fact he seemed quite modest about it, 
and protested his utter unworthiness of such an 
honor. The theory is that a man reaches the dignity 
of a Mandarin only by the highest literary merit. 
But men of great wealth seem to have it conferred 
upon them sometimes in a sort of honorary way. 
Woo, of Hangchow, the A. T. Stewart of China, has 
been distinguished in the same Avay. 

Our host at last led us out into, a veranda, where 
tea was awaiting us, and just as we were about 
sitting down a great outcry from below reached our 



l6^ SINGAPORE. 

ears. The kangaroo had got out. Mr. Whampoa 
was evidently a Httle excited, but he did not forget 
the dignity of the host. We had a fine field of view 
from the veranda. The chase of the escaped pris- 
oner was warm. The dogs were after him, and they 
soon came in view, the household servants yelling 
and running at the top of their speed. But you 
ought to have seen the kangaroo use his hind legs. 
Such leaps ! The man who has witnessed it once is 
not likely ever to forget it. 

We soon dispatched our tea, took leave of our 
host, and returning to town met the squad of pur- 
suers returning with the captured beast. 

This man is a confirmed heathen. We saw the in- 
cense-sticks burning both in his office and residence. 

We had taken rooms at the hotel, intending to 
spend the night there, but seeing lizards running 
about on the wall, Mr. Hendrix was so strongly 
reminded of a time when he had one on his neck 
that he got nervous, and so we slept on board the 
ship, having a fine moonlight drive through the 
woods, after first taking a stroll on the Bund, enjoy- 
ing the delicious breeze as it swept in from the sea ; 
and, as it was a north-east wind, it might be from 
America. At any rate we had hallowed communion 
about home, and the love of God and the grace of 
our Lord Jesus Christ. How strange and sad it 
seemed to us that such a man as Whampoa should 
be an idolator! But it had been bred into his soul 
from his very infancy, and rooted itself in his sensi- 
bilities, no doubt, from his mother's voice. 

The streets of Singapore are wide for an Oriental 
city, but would be considered narrow in America. 



SINGAPORE. 163 

They seem wonderfully roomy to a man who has 
been spending a month in Chinese cities, being, I 
should say, as wide as those in the oldest portion of 
St. Louis. 

The Chinese swarm in all the streets, and have 
the business of the place largely in their hands. 
Besides the business men, many of whom are very 
prosperous, there are many Chinese mechanics 
here. The Russian Consul is a Chinaman. By 
the way, our ship's carpenter is a Chinaman. Then 
there are innumerable Chinese coolies here who 
seem to do all the hard work of the place. The 
Malays are indolent. They furnish the gharry 
drivers, and most of the carts I saw were driven by 
them. A good many of them are small shop-keep- 
ers and money-changers. We had occasion to get 
some dollars changed into rupees, and were taken to 
a little Malay shop, where the proprietor was sitting 
on the floor, which was elevated about three feet 
above the street, and seemed to me perfectly indif- 
ferent as to the business. He handled the money 
carelessly and in the most leisurely way. One of 
them attached himself to us on the street as a self- 
constituted guide, having a little English at com- 
mand. He took us to the several shops, and assisted 
us in making purchases. We imagined he got a per 
cent, in the way of commission on the sales that 
were made to us. 

There are about 9,000 Tamils here. The police 
force of the city is taken from them. Our Consul 
informed us that the police regulations are admirable, 
and that but few crimes are committed. The offi- 



164 SINGAPORE. 

cers of the force, and the judges of all the courts, 
are English. 

The coolies are naked, except for a loin-cloth, and 
the well-to-do dress in thin goods in a way which 
exposes the person a good deal. We saw but few 
women on the street — indeed, none. Now and then 
we saw one at the door of her house, or in a boat. 
Those we saw were rather pretty. The Malay is a 
shade darker than the Chinaman ; but it is a brown 
color that I rather prefer to the Chinese yellow. 
The Malay woman is bedizened with jewelry. I saw 
one standing in the door of a poor house, whose 
fingers, wrists, ears and nostrils, were loaded. There 
were light rings at the top of the ear, and heavy ones 
at the bottom. Those in the nose were not sus- 
pended from the central cartilage, but from the out- 
side of the nostril. 

I thought of my countrywomen who undertake to 
make savages of themselves by mutilating their ears 
to get a place from which to hang jewelry. Let 
them come here and see what these ambitious 
heathen women do, if they wish to learn what is 
practicable in that line. I confess, I like to see 
things done thoroughly, when they are done at aU, 
and not minced at. If a woman is going to have 
holes bored in her ears, why not in her nose ? and 
why not two, as I have seen, on the outside of each 
nostril ? And why not two in each ear, as the Malay 
belles do, the one in the lower part half an inch long, 
the cartilage being stretched down by the weight of 
the jewel? Let the young ladies of America send 
out to Singapore for the fashions, or quit the prac- 
tice altogether. 



SINGAPORE. 165 

Three canoes, with two boys in each, came about 
our ship, and spent a good part of the day. Except 
for the loin-cloth, they were dressed in their, own 
skins. Their canoes, made of a single log of wood, 
were remarkably trim and light, and they managed 
them with great dexterity. They called out to the 
passengers in pretty good English, proposing to dive 
for any small piece of money that might be thrown 
into the water. Their agility and skill as divers are 
wonderful. They never fail to get the money long 
before it reaches the bottom. 

One of them proposed to dive to the bottom, and 
bring up some coral or seaweed for ten cents. One 
of the passengers agreed to give it. The little fellow 
stood erect in his canoe, poised himself, sprang into 
the air, and went into the water perpendicularly, 
head downward. He was gone so long that I should 
have felt uneasy, only I saw that his com.panions 
were not. At last he came up with two or three 
pieces of beautiful seaweed. He took breath a min- 
ute, looked at me, and said, ''Dime, sir?" ''Yes." 
Down he went, and was gone forty-two seconds. 
What he brought up I hope to take home with me. 
Again and again the feat was performed, until every 
■passenger had a specimen. The divers got lots of 
cash; I was going to say, pocketed lots — but that 
they did not do. When we moved off, some of the 
passengers waved handkerchiefs vigorously at them. 
They understood the joke, and screamed with laugh- 
ter, responding an uproarious good-bye. 

Just at the hour fixed for our departure, a gharry 
came down the road at a run. When it stopped, a 
portly man sprang out with papers in his hands, and 



1 66 SINGAPORE. 

ran across the wharf at a tremendous rate of speed. 
He had an elegant turban on his head ; his clothing 
was white and flowing, with a space between the 
upper and lower parts which exposed a band of skin 
across the stomach two or three inches wide. But, 
in spite of the disadvantages of his plight, he was 
one of the most dignified figures I ever saw. Though 
running at full speed, his port v/as commanding. 
Afterwards, as he stood on the wharf, he seemed to 
me to be as imposing a personage as I ever saw. He 
was accompanied, also, by a youth, of fourteen or 
fifteen, who resembled him closely, and was a sin- 
gularly beautiful boy. They were both of a re- 
markably light color for this latitude. On inquiry, 
I learned that they were father and son — were Brah- 
mans — and possessed of fabulous wealth. 

A run of thirty-eight hours brought us to Penang, 
where we had six hours for a stroll on shore. This 
is a large city with good streets ; belongs to Great 
Britain, politically, and to the Chinese, businessly. 
As usual, these people outnumber everybody else, 
and are the most enterprising and efficient. 

As at Singapore, an English-speaking Malay at- 
tached himself to us unbidden, constituting himself 
our guide. Another fellow, very dark-skinned, with 
but one eye, and a villainous countenance, having a 
gharry, followed us half through the city, begging 
us to take a ride with him. We were annoyed, as 
we could not shake either of them off. At last we 
wore out, the gharry-man, who left us in despair, but 
the other was doubly assiduous. At last we gave 
him three cents, and told him he would get no more. 
"Ten cents, master," he pleaded. If we had desired 



SINGAPORE* 167 

his services we would have given him twice that 
amount freely. But he was in our way, and we were 
resolved to get rid of him. He left us in disgust; 
still he had money enough to get his dinner. 

There is not a single Protestant Mission in Penang. 
Think of it — only one at Singapore, and not one at 
Penang. Passing a good-looking school-house, we 
went in and were met by a priest who was very 
polite. He is a Eurasian, from Calcutta. The only 
success they have, he says, is with the Chinese — 
the Malays are inaccessible. 

We went, also, to the English free-school, and 
happened to fall in on an interesting occasion. It 
was the end of a term, and prizes were to be award- 
ed. The pupils were all there in their best clothes. 
The exercises we witnessed consisted of reading 
in English, with grammatical analysis following; 
writing, and geography. It was very creditable. The 
prizes were English books, and, so far as we 
examined, such as go to create English sentiment. 
I give one specimen title — ''Brave English Sol- 
diers." 

We observed a good many people here who were 
as black as Africans, but with straight hair and 
Asiatic features. They are Klings from the neigh- 
borhood of Madras,, and those I saw are generally 
good looking, in spite of their color. Though black 
as negroes, it is a cleaner sort of black. The features 
of some of them are very fine, and there are a good 
many of them who are much lighter colored. 

I cannot close this article without referring again 
to the remarkable vitality of the Chinese. They are 
the progressive people of the East. The Govern- 



1 68 SINGAPORE. 

ment of Chirxa is not progressive, but the people are. 
They have overflowed on all the shores of Eastern 
Asia and Western America. They are influential, 
especially in Asia. They will never affect the insti- 
tutions nor the national life of America. But the 
whole region of Mongolia and Thibet is moulded 
largely by Chinese thought, and in Siam the Govern- 
ment is influenced greatly by them. The Japanese 
civilization came from China, while Corea, Formosa, 
and Cochin China, are little more than Chinese 
colonies, so far as the life and thought of the people 
go. 

The conversion of China would ^o far to complete 
the conquest of the world for Christ. It is the great 
achievement which the Church has before it now. 
That accomxplished, between Russia and China on 
this side and the north, and Europe on the other, 
Western Asia wotdd be compelled to capitulate ; 
and, as for Afric?, it Avill ultimately be what Europe 
and Asia make it. 

The Churches of America are chiefly responsible 
for the conquest of China. Europe is remote. There 
is the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, 
the Indian Ocean, the Straits of Malacca, and the 
China Sea, to be traversed. From America there is 
only the Pacific Ocean. 

Of the Churches in America, the M. E. Church, 
South, has the greatest responsibility in the premises. 
All the other great denominations have scattered 
their forces in the East. We are nowhere but in 
China. We can concentrate. We can bring the 
great resources of a powerful and wealthy com- 
munity to bear here. God is merciful to us in that 



TEN DAYS IN CEYLON. 1 69 

his providence has withheld us from other fields, 
that we may deliver our full strength on this, the 
most important of all — this, which is the key of the 
campaign. 



CHAPTER XV. 

TEN DAYS IN CEYLON. 

WHAT METHODIST can approach the island 
of Ceylon, and not think of Dr. Coke? 
I believe my feelings were never more 
aroused by any similar event than on Wednesday, 
January 31, as we came in sight of this classic land 
of Methodism — made classic by the death of that 
adventurous soldier of the cross. I thought of him 
dying on shipboard, on his way to establish the 
Wesleyan Mission here. I thought of his body cast 
over into the deep, I wondered if it had been de» 
voured by monsters, or wb ether, sinking into lower 
deeps, it might not even yet, preserved by the briny 
waters, be floating there> or lodged amid the crags 



I/O TEN DAYS IN CEYLON. 

of some coral reef. No matter! He died in Christ, 
and when the " Lord shall descend from Heaven 
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and 
with the trump of God," he will find his servant and 
bring him forth to his great" reward. 

By sunrise on Thursday morning, February i, we 
cast anchor in the harbor of Point de Galle. The 
harbor is small, and the approach to it difficult, and 
in rough weather, dangerous. Here we saw a new 
style of small boats, designed to stand the surf when 
the sea runs high. They are very, ve^y narrow, and 
stand high out of the water. This is to keep the 
breakers from dashing over and into them. Then, to 
prevent upsetting, there is a singular contrivance. 
Toward each end, on one side, a pole is inserted. 
These two poles are, I suppose, eight or ten feet 
long. They curve downward toward the end, and 
are fastened to a small log which floats on the water. 
Should the boat capsize in one direction, this log 
would have to be lifted at the end of a ten-foot 
lever, high into the air ; to go over in the other direc- 
tion, it would have to press the log deep into the 
water at the end of the same lever. The contriv- 
ance, though awkward-looking, is very effectual. 

We went ashore early, and took breakfast at the 
Oriental Hotel. After breakfast we called a bandy 
and drove out to Richmond Hill, the residence of 
the Wesleyan missionary. Of the ride we had more 
than we bargained for, owing to a misunderstanding 
of the driver, who took us to Gibson s Hill^a Church 
of England Misgion— High Church at that, But the 
drive was a very nne one, and we did not regret it. 
We had the harbor on one .§ide; cipttf d >yjth rocks 



TEN DAYS IN CEYLON. 



i;i 



near the shore, and with ships and native boats where 
the water was deep. The surf was rolhng in grandly, 
dashing itself into spray among the rocks, or 
approaching the coast at an unobstructed point, 
breaking into foam upon the beach. On the other 
side was a dense forest of cocoa-nut palm. I had 
seen the palm before, but never such a forest of it. 
The ground was covered with the shade, so that 
even the road was well protected against the rays of 
a tropical sun. 

We had a letter to the Rev. George Baugh, who 
had been in charge of the work at Galle. But, hav- 
ing been recently appointed in charge of the Cal- 
cutta District, he was on a visit of leave-taking in 
another part of the island. We found his successor 
here, the P.ev. Mr. Shipstone, just out from England, 
scarcely yet installed in the Mission-house. There 
was the inevitable confusion of domestic affairs inci- 
dent to the moving out of one family and the mov- 
ing in of another. However, the object of our visit 
was accomplished — we got large information as to 
missionary affairs in the Island, and a good deal of 
insight into the methods of work which obtain in 
this oldest of Wesleyan Missions in the East. 

Richmond Hill is an eminence commanding a fine 
display of tropical forest near at hand on the south, 
and beyond that the harbor and the sea ; and having 
on the north a breadth of landscape that extends to 
the mountain ranges of the interior. On the summit 
of the hill is the residence of the missionary, fronting 
the north. This is flanked on the left, at the distance 
of fifty yards, by the girls'-school; and on the right, 
at about the same distance, by the newly-erected 



i;72 "TEN DAYS In CEYLON. 

residence of the President of the College, the Rev. 
Mr. Langdon, an excellent scholar and a thorough- 
going man. Farther north, and half-way down the 
hill, is the College. The position of this building is 
rather obscure, but this was the only thing I saw that 
I was at all disposed to criticise. 

This school has secured such a reputation for effi- 
ciency and thoroughness that even the Buddhists are 
glad to patronize it. Thi^ is noteworthy, especially 
as it is not a free school, but charges tuition at fair 
rates, and as it is universally known to be a Christian 
school, emphatically, and that a boy attending it is 
very liable to be converted. The same is true of all 
the Wesleyan schools in the Island. It has been the 
object of our brethren to gain patronage by merits 
and not by gratuitous instruction. 

We took tiffin with the IMission family, and then 
drove on to Wacvv^alia, a place much resorted to for 
its fine view — but really, the landscape at Richmond 
Hill is better. However, we were well rewarded, 
having a fine valley threaded by a river on one side. 
Besides that, we saw a grove of nutmegs and a cinna- 
mon-garden. Standing on the summit of Wacwalla, 
H. imagined that he snuffed the " spicy breezes." I 
assured him that it was nothing but imagination. 
This corrected his nose, so that before we left the 
Island he became convinced that the *' spicy breezes " 
was mere poetry, nothing else. I suspect we should 
find it so even if we were in " Araby the blest." But 
w^e did find a decidedly fragrant atmosphere in an 
establishment for curing cinnamon bark, which we 
visited. This was some compensation to our noses 
for all they had undergone in China. 



TEN DAYS IN CEYLON. I73 

Through a great part of our drive we were dogged 
by beggars, as we were in the town also, whenever 
we stepped outside of our hotel. These trifling 
fellows are very expert. They will offer you a bou- 
quet of flowers, or volunteer a piece of trifling in- 
formation, and then demand pay. If you venture 
to speak to one of them you may rest assured he 
will have some of your money before you will ever 
be quit of him. 

On Friday evening, by chance, we had the oppor- 
tunity of going to Colombo by a steamer of the 
British India line. This is the political capital of 
Ceylon, and if they succeed with the breakwater 
they are building, it will be also the commercial 
emporium. We landed early on Saturday morning, 
and proceeded to the Galle Face Hotel, a house kept 
entirely by natives, where we got a very good break- 
fast, after which we drove to Colpetty to call on the 
Rev. John Scott, the Chairman of the Singhalese 
District. After getting what information we could, 
we determined to spend Sunday in Kandy. From 
Colombo to Kandy there is a railroad — the only 
one in the Island, except a very short one which is 
not yet completed. 

At two o'clock we were seated in a compartment 
of the second-class coach, and were soon fairly off 
for the interior. This trip would give us a view of 
life in regions remote from European influence, and 
for this reason we desired to take it. Then, Kandy 
was famous as the capital of the Kings of Kandy, 
before the Island was fully subjugated by the Eng- 
lish. It was also the site of the most famous Budd- 
hist temple in Ceylon. The natural scenery, too, 



174 TEN DAYS IN CEYLON. 

was represented as being exceptionally fine. But 
what was of greater interest to us was that the Wes- 
leyan Church at Kandy was represented to be pros- 
perous in a high degree. 

For some distance the road Hes in a level region, . 
but soon the undulating regions which skirt the 
mountains appear, and then the mountains them- 
selves, more and more precipitous, until the scenery 
becomes as bold and beautiful as any in the Alle- 
ghanies or the Blue Ridge. The effect is greatly 
enhanced by the tropical luxuriance of the foliage. 

The paddy-fields in the valleys, opening out into 
the heart of the tangled jungle, were very picturesque. 
Heavy forests of palm of various species, yielding 
more and more to other trees as the region becomes 
more elevated, with a thick undergrowth of brush, 
matted with creepers, were suggestive of tigers, ele- 
phants, cobras, and such like. Then, vast ranges of 
mountains, one behind another, sweeping off as far 
as the eye could reach, with cultivated valleys near, 
and the houses of the natiyes appearing here and 
there, constituted a variety that was beautiful in the 
highest degree. Some of the native houses were 
pretty white cottages, but the greater number are 
of mud, supported by a slight bamboo frame, and 
thatched with palm-leaf Some of them are a mere 
frame of bamboo, the sides being covered with palm- 
leaf, instead of the frame being filled in with mud. 

The dress of the best class of the natives is a piece 
of figured cotton goods, fastened around the waist 
and extending down to the feet. It is seamless. 
Some wear, in addition, a loose piece of goods about 
the shoulders. The men wear their hair full length, 



TEN DAYS IN CEYLON. I/^ 

combed back and fastened in a knot behind. They 
wear, also, a long bent comb. The coolies have 
scarcely any dress at all — none, in fact, except a loin- 
cloth. Nearly all the natives go barefoot. Jewelry 
abounds. Most of it is cheap, but not all. Rings in 
the ears, rings on the wrists, rings on the toes, and 
ankles, and rings in the nose. Children I have seen 
with rings of silver around the loins and not a shred 
of clothing. One woman I saw, a common laborer 
in a coffee-curing establishment, who h^d — would 
you believe it? — fifteen silver rings in each ear, nearly 
all of them being large and heavy. Other wom.en I 
have seen carying mortar-hods, and breaking stone 
on the roads, all glittering in rings of brass and sil- 
ver, and gold, too. 

Ten miles short of Kandy the road reaches the 
summit of the mountain range. The air is very fresh, 
contrasting strongly with the temperature of the 
coast, yet there is never a frost, nor any approach to 
it. The elevation is about 4,000 feet. The highest 
point in the Island, Adam's Peak, is something over 
7,000 feet. 

From the suramit we descended toward Kandy by 
a steep grade, the scenery still mountainous, but 
not so bold as on the other side of the range. It 
was nearly dark when we reached the city, a place 
of 14,000 inhabitants. We could not see what man- 
ner of place it was. Driving to the Queen's Hotel, 
we got good rooms and good fare, After dinner we 
walked out upon the border of the lake, which lies 
just across ^he ^street from our hotel. This is an 
artificial sheet of ^-ater made by the okl Kings of 
Jvandy, Jt js face4 by a strong ornamental wall pjj 



1/6 



TEN DAYS IN CEYLON. 



two sides, and lies against the foot of the mountains 
on the others, being about a mile in length, and hav- 
ing a breadth of near half a mile in the widest part, 
the contour being irregular. 

After a night of most refreshing sleep, in the 
mountain atmosphere, we awoke to find the city 




REV. ELIAS PAUL FONSEKA. 
Native Pastor at Kandy, Ceylon. 



glowing in the light of an unclouded sun. It is 
nestled in the mountains. We took coffee early, and 
walked out along the lake, by the summer-house 
of the last of the kings, wBich is built out over 
the lake, around the temple of Buddha to the foot 
of the mountains, and then down the street to 



TEN DAYS IN CEYLON. I// 

the Wesleyan Chapel. We fell in upon the hour 
of the Singhalese service, conducted by the Rev. 
Elias Paul Fonseka, the native pastor recently 
ordained an elder. At the close of the service he 
proceeded to the administration of the sacrament of 
the Lord's-Supper. Our hearts leaped within us for 
joy. We had participated in this feast with the 
native Church in Japan, and in China both at Shang- 
hai and Soochow, and now it was spread before us 
in the very heart of Ceylon. We approached the 
table with the lay communicants, and, with them 
took the bread and wine at the hands of the pastor, 
" in remembrance of Him." It was a hallowed 
moment. I never /^// myself nearer to the cross. I 
never felt more deeply the love of God and his 
people. These men of another hemisphere and of 
another color, were one with me in Christ Jesus, and 
I was one with them in heart, though I had never 
before seen their faces. I felt indeed that, 
'* Heaven came down our souls to greet, 
And glory crowned the mercy-seat." 

The congregation was small, and the communi- 
cants few, but He made good His promise and was 
" in the midst of them." 

At half-past nine, a. m., the English service openfed. 
A very good sermon was preached by Mr. Nichul- 
son, a visiting brother. The congregation was fair, 
as to numbers, and made up almost entirely of 
Eurasians. There was an organ to make music, and 
the singing was led by a voice so remarkable for 
melody and power, that I turned involuntarily 
toward the choir. The proprietor of the voice was 
as fin^ a> looking man. as you will iind in a month* 



lyS TEN DAYS IN CEYLON. 

The service was well-conducted in every respect, 
and, to me, very profitable. After the service, we 
went forward and gave our letter to Mr. Baugh, who 
was present. We were cordially invited to breakfast 
with our friend of the fine voice, J. H. Eaton, Esq., 
Barrister. He is a native of Ceylon, but of Scotch 
descent. The visiting brethren, Nicholson and 
Baugh, with their wives, were at his house. Besides 
being one of the leading advocates of the Island, 
he is a Wesleyan local preacher. He is one of the 
finest conversationalists I have ever seen. Once 
under his roof we were as much at home as if we 
had been in America, and spent the day in pleasant 
conversation and singing. At night Mr. Baugh 
preached his valedictory sermon, before his depar- 
ture for Calcutta, from the text, " Christ is all and in 
all." After the sermon we feasted by faith again 
upon the body and blood of the Lord. 

Monday morning we drove out to see the famous 
Botanical Garden. Here we saw every species of 
palm indigenous in Ceylon in the highest perfection 
— cocoanut, areeka, kittul, talipat, date, palmyra, 
cabbage and travelers* palm, with several other varie- 
ties. The travelers' palm is so named because the 
leaf-stem contains a generous supply of water, very 
pure and sweet, which the traveler sometimes finds 
his only resource in "a dry and thirsty land." The 
areeka palm bears the nut so extensively used for 
chewing. The kernel is very hard. A piece of it, 
with a quid of tobacco and a small quantity of lime, 
is wrapped up in betuUeaf and chewed by m.en and 
women. The disgolsration of teeth among the na^' 
jives, by tl}i3 fn^.^^s^ is ajmost universal 



TEN DAYS IN CEYLON. 



179 



We were fortunate in finding two specimens of the 
talipat palm in full bloom. This tree is a genuine cen- 
tury plant, growing for one hundred years from the 
seed ; then, blooming, and bearing seed, it dies. The 
largest one we saw we judged to be not less than 
sixty feet in height. It was fairly crowned with flow- 
ers, and we could not but feel a sort of sympathy 
with the noble tree, that, now it had attained its high- 
est glory, it must perish. 

Here, too, we saw some of the finest groves of bam- 
boo in the world. There are also a number of noble 
banyans in the grounds, and several gigantic speci- 
mens of the India-rubber tree, w^ith its. deeply-corru- 
gated trunk, massive, spreading branches, and lateral 
roots, ridging themselves up ten or twelve inches 
above the surface of the ground. The grounds are 
very extensive, and space forbids the further enumer- 
ation of the endless variety of trees and shrubs 
growing here. But here and there a cluster of large, 
dead trees is literally covered with one single creeper, 
looking like the tower of a vast cathedral. The effect 
is very fine. 

Returning, we took breakfast at ten o'clock with 
the Rev. Robert Tebbs, the resident missionary. In 
the afternoon he drove us around on the mountain- 
side overlooking the town from the south. Here we 
had many very fine views, and saw a coffee-planta- 
tion. Kandy is in the heart of the coffee district. 
The plantations are all in the mountains, and on the 
steep mountain slopes. This industry has been 
developed by English enterprise within the present 
century. There are, even now, very few native pro- 
prietors. The work is done by Tamil coolies. The^ 



1 80 TEN DAYS IN CEYLON. 

men are paid from eighteen to thirty-three cents a 
day and feed themselves. Women and children get 
much less. The planter furnishes them quarters to 
sleep in, which are usually a long row of brick build- 
ings divided into compartments of eight feet by ten, 
each of which serves for eight persons. These labor- 
ers subsist upon rice and curry, with such vegetables 
as they can get. The planter sells to each hand a 
peck of rice a week. He generally makes a per cent, 
on his rice, which, by a law of custom, he always 
sells at a fixed price. Occasionally rice goes up in 
the market, and then he supplies it to his coolies at 
a loss. At night the laborers crowd into their nar- 
row quarters, spread down their mats on the dirt 
floor, and, with a coarse blanket to draw over their 
naked bodies if it should get too cool before day, in 
this rude way take their rest. Eight in an area of 
eight by ten, on a dirt-floor, with a peck of rice a 
week each, and no meat ! What would an old-fash- 
ioned Southern darkey say to that ? These particu- 
lars I got from a planter at the hotel. 

The coffee crop is subject to blight from drought 
when it is in bloom, but when the yield is good the 
profits are very large. Take one year with another 
the thorough-going planter makes money fast. 
Many millions of dollars are brought into the Island 
annually by this crop. 

We visited, also, the great temple of Buddha, but 
found the principal apartment closed. The grounds 
were faUing into decay, and the temple was much 
neglected until the present very amiable Governor 
had them repaired at public cost, since which, time 
the priests take on airs and keep their sacred arti- 



TEN Dx\YS IN CEYLON. lol 

cles much out of sight. The principal one is a tooth 
of Buddha. The CathoHcs asseverate that they got 
the real, original Buddha's tooth in the old Portu- 
guese times, and destroyed it. But the Buddhist 
priests, equally veracious for aught I know, maintain 
that they have the genuine article. It is rarely ex- 
hibited now, but at certain hours the jeweled casket 
which contains it may be seen even by eyes profane. 
These unfortunate eyes of mine, however, did not 
rest even upon the casket. 

The sacred grounds of the Hindoos lie on the 
opposite side of the street. There we saw the bow- 
tree, which a Hindoo never sees but that he per- 
forms an act of devotion. Besides that there are 
some very simple tablets and shrines, but nothing of 
any great interest. From this point we visited the 
graves of the ancient kings, which are on an emi- 
nence in a grove of the sacred bow-tree, one of 
which seems to have been planted at each grave. 
But the monuments were never very imposing, and 
all are now in a state of hopeless decay. Near 
this is the Mohammedan mosque, a neat but not 
pretentious building. The Mahommedans of Ceylon 
are called Moonne7i. 

They are understood to be of Moorish origin. 
There are 171,000 of them. They are engaged 
largely in mercantile pursuits, and are shrewd and 
unscrupulous. They are generally prosperous, and 
are called the "Jews of Ceylon." They keep them- 
selves as distinct from all other peoples as the Jews 
of Europe and America. 

In the evening there was a farewall tea-meeting 
given to Mr. Baugh in the school-building. It was a 



1 82 TEN DAYS IN CEYLON. 

rich occasion. Mr. Nicholson presided with fine tact. 
The place of honor was reserved, of course, for the 
guest, Mr. Baugh. The next highest seats were 
given to the American visitors. After tea had been 
served and prayer offered there was a little singing 
and much speaking. All hearts were full. Mr. 
Baugh had once been their pastor, and the great 
prosperity of the Church in Kandy had dated from 
his term. To his energy they were indebted for their 
beautiful chapel. Many of them had been converted 
under his ministry. He had been the friend of all. 
You can imagine how full of heart this farewell- 
meeting was. The speaking of the occasion was 
choice. Our friend Eaton was very happy. My 
traveling-companion delivered himself with first-rate 
effect, and I brought up the rear. 

On Tuesday morning, at / o'clock, we were off 
again by the train for Colombo, accompanied by Mr. 
and Mrs. Baugh. Near the city Mr. Baugh pointed 
out the place on a mountain where formerly, and 
perhaps within this century, human sacrifices had 
been offered to the devil. Once a year two of the 
most beautiful girls were selected, of the age of four- 
teen years, bound hand and foot, carried to the sum- 
mit of the mountain and tied to a stake, just at night- 
fall. Horrid, diabolical rites were performed around 
them, devoting them to the devil, that his malignity 
might be appeased for the ensuing year, and at mid- 
night they were left alone. They were always found 
dead in the morning. They died, no doubt, from 
the awful fright they were subjected to. At length, 
early in the present century, one of the victims was 
found alive in the morning. The people could 



TEN DAYS IN CEYLON. 1 83 

scarcely believe their senses. '' Ah," said the girl, 
in a happy voice, " you did not know me, and I did 
not tell you who I was. I knew the devil could not 
hurt me, for I am a follower of Jesus. I prayed to 
him, and I knew he would preserve me." The hor- 
rible sacrifice has never been repeated. 

But devil-worship is still prevalent among the 
heathen. It does not belong to Buddhism, as such, 
but the Buddhists of Ceylon are all devil-worshipers, 
besides being Buddhists. All sickness is believed to 
be caused by the Evil One. A "devil-priest" is 
called. The people collect about the house where 
the sick man is. Ceremonies begin at dark and run 
through the whole night. The tom-tom, a rude 
drum, is beaten all night. The priest dances in a 
frightful mask. The devil is incessantly invoked and 
appealed to, to release the victim. Sometimes the 
priest tries his wit on his Satanic Majesty, and if he 
is gifted in that way will set the spectators in a roar 
of laughter occasionally. So passes .the livelong 
night, and at dawn an effigy of the patient is taken 
out of the house and buried, whereby the devil is 
supposed to be deceived, and leave the place. Does 
the patient recover? Sometimes he does, sometimes 
he does not, of course. Instances of recovery are 
sufficiently common to keep the remedy in credit. 
No doubt the priests might fill an almanac with cer- 
tificates eveiy year. 

At the depot in Colombo we found a note from 
Mr. Scott, inviting us to his house, where we found a 
delightful Methodist home for two days. In the 
afternoon we drove out to Cotta, five miles, with the 
jiey, S, K, \yilkhy Principal of Wesley College, tp 



184 TEN DAYS IN CEYLON. 

visit a school of the Church Missionary Society, un- 
der the care of the Rev. R. T. Dowbiggin. Mrs. 
Dowbiggin also has a school for girls at the same 
place. Our reception was cordial. We were in quest 
of information as to the missionary methods of this 
truly evangelical Society of the Church of England. 
Every thing we saw and heard gratified us. Every 
thing is thoroughly Christian, and the seed of eternal 
life is sown broadcast, and with a liberal hand. 

The next morning we visited Wesley College in 
company with Mr. Scott. It has a large patronage, 
and is the chief of the Wesieyan schools in the Island. 
We visited also, on the same premises, the printing- 
press which has been in operation here for more than 
half a century. In addition to the work of the Mis- 
sion it gets sufficient job-work to pay all expenses, 
and a little more. On the same lot is the first church 
built in Asia by the Wesleyans. It was finished in 
1818. It is a plain but spacious building, and has, 
on the wall,.the following inscription on a tablet. It 
was copied for me by one of the native preachers : 

" SACRED TO THE MEMORY 

of 
"THE LATE REV. THOMAS COKE, LL.D., 

of the University of Oxford, 
General Superintendent of the Wesieyan Methodist 
Missions, who was an ardent lover of immortal souls, 
and a zealous and persevering friend and advocate 
of Christian Missions among the heathen. By his 
instrumentality, liberality, and pergonal exertion, the 
Wesieyan Methodist Missions were introduced and 
established in all the four quarters of the globe, 



TEN DAYS IN CEYLON. iS^ 

Their success in the conversion of sinners lay nearest 
his heart, and was one of the chief sources of his joy 
while on earth. Thousands of real converts will hail 
him blessed in the great day ; his last principal 
undertaking was the introduction of this Mission to 
Asia. For this purpose, like that primitive and emi- 
nent missionary,. St. Paul, he withstood the earnest 
entreaties of his numerous friends, and, at the 
advanced age of 6/ years, he left his native and 
much-beloved country, under the express sanction of 
the British Government, and bearing letters testi- 
monial from several of the principal characters in the 
State, being accompanied by six other missionaries 
— the Revs. Messrs. Lynch, Ault, Erskine, Harvard, 
Squance, and Clough — and burning with fervent zeal 
for the conversion of the inhabitants of India, he was 
followed by the tears and prayers of anxious multi- 
tudes. His constitution, hov/ever, sunk under the 
change of climate, and from intense application to 
preparatory studies, he died on the voyage. May the 
3d, 1 8 14, happy in that Saviour whom he had so suc- 
cessfully preached to others ; and his mortal remains 
were interred at sea, in lat. 2 deg. 29 min. S., and 
long. 59 deg. 29 min. E. 

"This tablet, inscribed by his surviving missionary 
companions and sons in the ministry, is designed as 
a public and constant memorial of their unceasing 
respect, affection, and reverence for his person and 
character. 

"August, 1 8 16." 

" Our fathers chose building-sites wisely," said Mr. 
Scott, "and this has been a great advantage to us." 
No doubt. 



lg6 TEN DAYS IN CEYLON. 

After that we visited an immense establishment 
where coffee is hulled, cured, and prepared for mar- 
ket, and where cocoanut oil is expressed. But I 
cannot find room for any description. Several hun- 
dred hands are employed, many of them women. 
The excellent proprietors are brothers, sons of a Bap- 
tist missionary, who honor their father by a consis- 
tent Christian life. 

After our eleven-o'clock breakfast, v/e rode out 
eleven miles, to Morotto. Fifty years ago this 
neighborhood was noted for crime, even among the 
heathen. A native Wesleyan preacher, Silva by 
name, introduced the gospel among them. The word 
grew mightily and prevailed. With Christianity 
came cessation of crime, and habits of industry, and 
now Morotto is known far and wide for the good 
character of its people, and its artisans have become 
so famous as to be in request in all parts of the 
Island. Here Mr. Scott had made a special appoint- 
ment for us to preach. By invitation, we were to 
take tiffin at the residence of Mrs. Silva, a Singhalese 
lady, who is an earnest Christian. Her son-in-law, 
a native physician, whose dress was a compromise 
between the native and European style, received us 
on the veranda. The house is an elegant one, and 
would be so considered in any country. I was quite 
amazed to find such signs of taste and luxury. Mrs. 
Silva was dressed in the best style of native costume, 
and was barefoot. The young ladies were seated 
with us at the table, richly and tastefully dressed in 
European style. The native pastor was present, 
also, who understood English, as, indeed, all the 
preachers do. But with our hostess we could con- 



TEN DAYS IN CEYLON. 1 8/ 

verse only by an Interpreter. On our table was roast 
turkey, with other meats, and abundance of vege- 
tables and tropical fruits. 

The church is a spacious house, built by the native 
Society, and is a very tasteful structure. An alarm 
of small-pox prevented many from attending, yet 
the house was full. Mr. Scott opened the service, 
and read the Lord's message to the Church at 
Smyrna. I looked abroad upon the native congre- 
gation, at the sight of which I could have shouted 
for joy. For cleanliness, good behavior, propriety 
of dress, and intelligent attention to the word, they 
would compare well with the average congregation 
in America. The text was, " Be thou faithful unto 
death, and I will give thee a crown of life." Topic, 
Fidelity to Christ, and its reward. It was inter- 
preted, sentence by sentence, by the Rev. D. H. 
Pereira, a native. I made no effort at simplicity of 
language, but used some words which a mere smat- 
terer in English would not be likely to understand. 
But my interpreter was never at a loss, and Mr„ 
Scott assured me afterward that there was but one 
inaccuracy in his rendering of the sermon. After 
the service, we rode a mile to see another fine stone 
church in course of construction. We were accom- 
panied by the pastor, a fine, tall, beautiful, courtly, 
yet simple-hearted, earnest young man, very influen- 
tial among his people. 

Night fell upon us as we were returning to Col- 
ombo. The road lay among cinnamon groves, and 
forests of palmyra and areeka palm. A hallowed 
sense of the love of Christ filled our hearts. We 



1 88 TEN DAYS IN CEYLON. 

thought of Coke and his companions, and exclaimed 
in our hearts, ** What hath God wrought ? " 

Yet the reader will be disappointed by the census. 
The figures do not foot up so well as one would 
desire. Progress is steady, and in an advancing ratio 
all the while, of late years. Hitherto the work has 
been largely that of laying the foundation. Now the 
harvest begins to be gathered in, and the laborers 
are full of hope and joy. 

The whole population of the Island is, according 
to the official- census, 2,401,066. Of these 1,520,944 
are Buddhists, 171,542 are Mohammedans, and 240,- 
049 are Christians. A few thousands are of other 
faiths, or no faith. 

Of the Christians, 184,399 are Roman Catholics, 
and 55,649 are protestants. This disparity in favor 
of the Romanists is accounted for by the fact that 
they have been here over three centuries, and the 
Protestants less than one. Indeed, so far as any 
effectual work among the natives goes, the Protest- 
ants have been here but a little over sixty years. 
Within that time they have made much more rapid 
progress than the other. But the 55,649 Protestants 
are not ail Church-members. They include children, 
catechumens, and adherents. 

The Wesleyans claim a population of 15,000, but 
the actual membership is not over 3,000, including 
probationers. The rest are children and habitual 
attendants upon the services, including all who look 
to them for pastorial service, such as marrying and 
burying the dead. These persons publicly avow 
themselves believers in Christianity, but make no 
profession of actual conversion. 



CEVLON, madras, CALCUTTA. 1 89 

But there are other important statistics to be 
considered. 

There are iii Sunday-schools, with 4,927 schol- 
ars; 162 day-schools, with 8,967 scholars. Habitual 
attendants on the Wesleyan services, 15,599. 

These statistics were returned in 1875. The 
increase in the last two years has been considerable, 
so that, probably, ten per cent, ought to be added. 
The membership is., probably, by this time, 3,200. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

CEYLON, MADRAS, CALCUTTA. 

I HAVE SAID that Protestant missionary- 
work, in Ceylon, dated back only some sixty 
years. It is true that in the time of the Dutch 
occupancy a great many of the natives were bap- 
tized. But they were not converted in any proper 
sense of the word. The Government offered its 
employments only to such as had been baptized, 
and under this stimulus the work went on bravely. 
But when the English came in they offered no such 
advantage to converts, and the baptized relapsed 
almost to a man. It is true, therefore, that the work 



190 CEYLON, MADRAS, CALCUTTA. 

of evangelization did not really begin until within 
this century. 

One significant fact I learned is this : The mission- 
aries do not now have as many heathen hearers in 
their congregations as formerly. When the gospel 
was first preached the Buddhists were very friendly, 
and many of them seemed to give a certain credence 
to the word. It soon became evident that they 
looked upon the new rehgion introdu(^ed by Euro- 
peans as probably true, and thought it might be well 
to take it in addition to the faith they already held. 
For one man to hold two or three forms of religion 
is no new thing in heathenism. But when the mis- 
sionaries began to attack Buddhism, and they came 
to understand that Christ could admit no participant 
of his throne, an active hostility was aroused, so that 
now the priests do all in their power to prevent their 
followers from attending upon any place of Christian 
worship. The lines are drawn — the antagonism is 
defined. Christ brings to Buddhism not peace, but 
the sword, and the priest finds that he must measure 
weapons with the preacher. So, the priests have 
gone to pj'eachmg Buddhism, and are actually pro- 
ducing a controversial literature. It was told me 
that they have translated Bishop Colenso's work on 
the Pentateuch into Singhalese and published it, for 
the sole purpose of discrediting the Christian faith. 

I met with one instance of the disposition some- 
times found among the heathen to tolerate Chris- 
tianity. Visiting a Brahman temple, at Madras, 
quite a crowd of natives collected about us, many of 
whom spoke English very well. I overheard one, in 
a group near me, say : " O yes, Christianity is very 



CEVLON, MADRAS, CALCUTTA. I9I 

good — Christ was probably one of the incarnations 
of Vishnu." 

But I must not get away from Ceylon so sud- 
denly. 

The work of the Wesleyans there is arranged 
under two Districts, one in the north, among the 
Tamils, and one in the south, among the Singhalese, 
chiefly. The Singhalese are the aboriginal inhabit- 
ants of the island, but the northern part of it was 
taken possession of by Tamil emigrants, or rather 
invaders from the continent, some centuries ago. 
About half of the country is still populated chiefly by 
them. There is little or no intermxarriage between the 
two peoples. Wherever there is a demand for labor, 
at living wages, the Tamil coolies may be found. In 
all the cities of Ceylon and of the Straits they 
abound. Just at this time the famine on the conti- 
nent has caused a new flood of them to go abroad. 
In the Madras Presidency there are about 15,000,000 
of them. 

It is evident that the eradication of heathenism 
from Ceylon is not the work of a day. But the work 
is going on. Christian schools have a large and in- 
creasing patronage, and the infiltration of Christian 
thought into the popular mind is beginning to satu- 
rate it, while scientific truth, obtaining more and 
more, puts to shame the silly superstitions which are 
the very groundwork of Buddhistic belief. I am 
told that it is not an unusual thing for a man to say, 
** We cannot embrace your religion, but our children 
will." Many of them seem to feel the power of 
Christ's coming. They see that the advance of 
Christian ideas is irresistible. Their minds are ad- 



192 CEYLON, MADRAS, CALCUTTA. 

justed to the triumph of Christ as to a destiny, and 
this feehng facihtates Christian work, and must 
hasten the result. 

From Colombo we returned to Galle by stage, 
seventy-two miles. Our horses were miserably poor, 
but wicked fellows, and were changed every six 
miles. One had bitten two men to death, some 
played the wild with their heels, and one or two did 
their best to run away ; but, fortunately, they were 
nothing but skin and bone. The trouble is, they are 
of the masculine gender, unmitigated. About noon 
our front axle broke, and down we came, but fortu- 
nately we were within a quarter of a mile of the 
breakfast-station, where another coach could be had. 
The breakfast-house was a very pleasant one, and 
the fare good. On the wall were suspended Scrip- 
ture-quol::tions in large type. When we started 
again, we found that our new coach was an old one, 
with a very infirm wheel. All predicted a collapse, 
except me. Some of our passengers killed a snake, 
and gave chase to two cobrella goyas. They are of 
the lizard species, about six feet in length, most of 
which is tail. Their speed, under chase, amused us. 
They, and the excitement about the loose-jointed 
wheel, rendered the journey sufficiently spicy. But 
we got in on time, having made the trip in eleven 
hours, including one hour for breakfast — seventy-two 
measured miles in ten hours of actual traveling time. 

Europeans here take every precaution against the 
scorching rays of the sun, wearing pith hats, and 
never venturing out without an umbrella; but the 
natives go naked, except a strip about the hips. 
This refers to the coolies. But all classes go bare- 



CEYLON, MADRAS, CALCUTTA. 1 93 

headed, except that a good many wear turbans. I 
have seen these naked men all day in their boats, 
harvesting rice, standing in the v/ater, fishing, or 
wading in shallow pools hour after hour to get up 
the little molhisca found at the bottom, for food. 




NATIVE WILD MAN OF CEYLON. 

Skin and brain, they seem to be absolutely sun-proof. 
Our steamer was a little late, so that we had three 
days at Galle. Having already seen the country 
around, and the native shops, the jugglers and the 
snake-charmers, the time passed a little heavily. By 
the way, the cobra in the hands of the charmer is an 

*-7 



194 CEYLON, MADRAS, CALCUTTA. 

interesting object. His fangs are extracted, and he 
seems to be in fear of his keeper, but when he be- 
co-mes angry and elevates his crest and spreads his 
neck, he does look superb. But all serpents, in their 
native state, fly from the face of man, and instances 
of a fatal bite are very rare indeed. The cobra never 
attacks, unless he finds himself in close quarters. 

Sunday morning I preached in the Presbyterian 
Church. The house was built by the Dutch, and is 
a venerable pile in the form of a cross. The little 
octagonal pulpit, high up toward the ceiling, with 
just room for one man, stands against one angle of 
the cross. The preacher takes the congregation 
corner-wise, having, also, a sounding-board over his 
head. I met the pastor in the vestry. He offered 
me a gown. I begged to be excused. When I 
entered the auditoriu-m and saw the pulpit, my heart 
misgave me. To stand in a barrel, eight feet above 
the floor, and preach diagonally at the people, 
seemed odd enough. But I ascended to my perch 
and did the best I could, having, indeed, better lib- 
erty than I expected. But let my friends fancy me 
in such a situation ! 

After service we went aboard the Australia, bound 
for Calcutta. Mr. Baugh and his family were our 
traveling companions. 

Early Wednesday morning we came to anchor off 
Madras. I do not say in the harbor of Madras, for 
there is no harbor. I suppose there is not to be 
found a worse landing for any large city in the world. 
Even in the quietest weather the surf is ugly, and 
w^hen the sea is rough it is fearful. A peculiar boat 
is made here to meet the emergency. It is of the 



CEYLON, MADRAS, CALCUTTA. I95 

length of a large skiff, but broader and much deeper. 
There is not a nail in it, but the thin planks of which 
it is made are sewed together — yes, literally sewed 
together— with very strong twine. Having a day to 
visit the city, we struck a bargain with the owner of 
a massoola — such is the name of the boat. He first 
asked us seven rupees each, but was glad, at last, to 
take one. There were ten naked rowers. Coming 
near the shore, they waited for a big wave, and then 
pulled with all their might. We were beached near 
high-breaker mark. Two men instantly presented 
themselves before me. I stood on the edge of the 
boat, as high as their shoulders, dropped myself into 
their arms, and was borne to the dry land. No boat 
having its timbers fastened together with nails would 
stand this beaching, in a heavy surf, half-a-dozen 
times. It would go to pieces directly. But there is 
a measure of flexibihty in the seams of the massoola 
which enables it to bear the strain. 

There is another little craft here called the cata- 
maran, used by the natives for fishing and other pur- 
poses, which is the rudest structure we have seen 
anywhere. It is made simply of four logs fastened 
together. The two on the outside are half their 
diameter higher than the two central ones. The 
front-end has something of a boat-like shape. The 
rower sits down, holding his oar by both hands in 
the center, and uses it with a stroke, first with one 
end on one side, and then with the other end on the 
other side. The spray dashes upon him ; sometimes 
the surf breaks over him; but what cares he? The 
catamaran still floats — nothing can sink it. It will 



196 CEYLON, MADRAS, CALCUTTA. 

live In any sea. As for a wetting, this naked boat- 
man, in this tropical climate, rather enjoys it. 

In company with Mr. and Mrs. Baugh we drove to 
the Wesleyan Mission-house. Mr. Stephenson, the 
Chairman of the District, received us most cordially. 
He showed us a girls'-school in which the children 
are all of low-caste families, and another in which 
they are all high-caste. In addition to the jewels in 
the ears and on the outside of the nostrils, as in Cey- 
lon and the Straits, they had them suspended also 
from the cartilage that divides the nostrils. Three 
pieces of jewelry vibrating at the end of the nose, 
with every movement of the head, did look odd 
enough. But generally those on the outside of the 
nostrils are shaped like a button, and lie against the 
side of the nose, while the middle one is a ring, dan- 
gling upon the upper lip. Come to India, my coun- 
trywomen, and learn how to wear jewelry ! You 
ought to be ashamed of yourselves to have only one 
hole bored in each ear. When you pretend to do 
any thing, do it. . I have seen a woman with thirty - 
two in her ears and nose. 

In the boys'-school individuals of all castes are 
mingled together. A few years ago this could not 
be done. But the missionaries would never consent 
to exclude low-caste boys, and at last the Brahmans 
began to come and occupy separate forms ; in which 
case they would go right away, in the evening, and 
wash their clothes — no great job, by the way. But 
now they come freely, sit in the same forms, and the 
boys of the highest caste touch those of the lowest 
with impunity. Yet the idea of caste is not eradi- 



CEYLON, MADRAS, CALCUTTA. 1 97 

cated. , Individuals of different castes never inter- 
marry now any more than formerly. 

I was invited to address the boys of the highest 
class. They were well-grown, and most of them 
fine-looking fellows. They knew very well the 
geography of the United States of America, In a 
general way — and some of them were evidently grat- 
ified to let me know that they knew where St. Louis 
was, in the State of Missouri, on the banks of the 
great Mississippi river. I found a great many intel- 
ligent men wanting in an accurate knowledge of 
geography. Several of the English preachers have 
introduced us as ministers of the M. E. Church, /ro7n 
South America. But we did not venture to put on 
airs, inasmuch as we find that we ourselves do not 
know every thing. 

In this highest class, in which there were some 
twenty-nve young men, five were Christians, five 
Brahmans, some Mohammedans, and the rest — I 
know not what. The Scripture-lesson of the day 
was the temptation of Christ. Every class has one 
hour a day devoted to the study of Holy Scripture. 
Yet only a very few of them are Christians, and, up 
to this date, only a few who have gone through the 
school have been converted. Many of the teachers 
are heathen. It being impossible to find a sufficient 
number of educated Christian natives to fill the 
places. In this respect Ceylon has a great advan- 
tage, all the native teachers in the Mission-schools 
being Christians. 

Many of the patrons of these Mission-schools are 
bitterly opposed to Christianity. They send their 
sons only on account of the superior educational 



198 CEYLON, MADRAS, CALCUTTA. 

advantages which they are supposed to afford. If 
they supposed their boys were in danger of being 
converted they would withdraw them at once. In 
fact, the school was entirely broken up at one time 
by the conversion of several of the pupils. Still 
they do not object to the study of the Bible as a 
text-book. It is the Sacred Book of the Western 
people, and to know what it teaches is very well, a 
necessary part, indeed, of a complete education. 

The English language is taught in all these 
schools, and the advanced classes understand it very 
v/ell. This opens all the treasures of Christian 
knowledge, stored in that language, to them. There 
is a great advantage in this, but also, sometimes, a 
disadvantage A young man, who was just ready 
to be baptized, got hold of Channing's works, the 
reading of which loosened him from all his moor- 
ings. What became of him I know not, but he 
drifted away from Christ. 

There is an institution here of the highest grade 
known in the country, under the immediate control 
of the Free Church of Scotland, but supported and 
contributed to by all the Missions in Madras. It is 
called the Christian College. Our visit to it was 
hasty, but we saw enough to show a very vigorous 
management. There is a very large school of lower 
grade in the same building. The Free Church has 
a grand piece of property in the heart of the city. 
On the corner is a large church, where the preaching 
is to the heathen exclusively. Next to that is the 
church where Europeans and native converts assem- 
ble. Next to that again is the very spacious school 
and college building. The matriculates in both de- 



CEYLON, MADRAS, CALCUTTA. iqq 

partments are over i,ooo. The actual attendance 
the day we were there was 979. 

But the fruits of missionary labor in Madras have 
been small. Fruits, I mean, as they appear in actual 
conversions. In some respects, no doubt, results 
have been very great. On this point I may have 
more to say after seeing more of India. 

In the course of the day we visited a Brahman 
temple, having been forewarned that we would see 
only a small one, there being no large temple in 
Madras. But, really, after our observation of Budd- 
hist, Tauist, and Sintoo temples, in China aad Japan, 
we should have called this a very large one. It is 
built of stone, and over the gate-ways is a tower of 
symmetrical design, very elaborately ornamented 
with carvings. In front is a long portico, extending 
out at right angles from the main building, the roof 
resting on monolith pillars, about twenty-five feet 
high, I should say. These pillars seem to be of 
granite, and each one has several images carved 
upon it in rather bold relief In front of this is a 
square, artificial lake of stagnant water, about, say, 
one hundred yards in diameter. A stone wall, in 
the form of steps, descending to the water's edge, 
incloses it on all sides. In the center is a circular 
structure — a roof resting on columns. All this is a 
part of the temple grounds. Around the edges of 
the lake was a lively scene of clothes-washing, after 
the universal Oriental style, the v/asherwoman, or 
man, standing in the water into which he dips the 
garment, and, elevating it high into the air, threshes 
it upon the rock. Buttons stand a poor chance — 
and so does lint, for that matter. We saw one 



200 CEYLON, MADRAS, CALCUTTA. 

new thing here — a woman standing in the water 
Washing the loose garments she had on, keeping one 
part about her person while she scoured the other. 

People here indicate their faith by wearing a mark 
in the forehead. It is put on in chalk-dust, generally 
white, but sometimes colored. We saw the pigment 
exposed for sale in the temple portico. Sometimes 
it is a broad band across the forehead, sometimes a 
spot just above the base of the nose, sometimes a 
trident extending upward from the base of the nose, 
the outer lines white and the central one brown. 

This trident is worn by Brahmans, and there are 
two forms of it. In one form the lower extremity of 
the figure makes a regular curve, like a horse-shoe; 
in the other a little point extends downward from 
the extremity. These different forms represent dif- 
ferences of doctrine — slight, very sHght, differences, a 
venerable wearer of the horse-shoe told us ; but when 
the two parties meet in the temple they sometimes 
make the walls resound with the vigor of their angry 
reproaches and recriminations. 

Under a shed, near by, was a huge car, brought 
out twice a year in the processions, and drawn by 
men. I asked our venerable friend of the orthodox 
trident how many men were required to draw it. He 
rephed that it had to be started by powerful levers, 
but, once started, five or six hundred men could keep 
it moving on a horizontal surface. It is surmounted 
by a tower, ornamented with much barbaric carving. 
The wheels are of wood, solid, five feet high, and, at 
least, eight or ten inches thick. 

Near by stood the sacred elephant, belonging to 
the temple, for use in the great processions. He is 



CEYLON, MADRAS, CALCUTTA. 201 

of a different species from any I ever saw In a men- 
agerie — taller, but not so heavy, the forehead, also, 
retreating more. He seemed to be thin in flesh. 
But he is a high-caste elephant, as the chalk-dust 
daub on his forehead attests. A young fellow 
mounted him for our delectation. The great, docile 
creature, at command, lifted his rider on his fore-leg, 
which he drew up to a right angle with his body, or 
nearly so, and from which the boy scrambled up 
somehow. Seated on the neck of the monster, he 
commanded him to salute us — '' salaam." This Avas 
uttered in a loud voice. Flis elephantship looked at 
us as if he knew v/ho was meant, elevated his trunk 
above. his head, and gave a great, good-natured 
grunt, with which v/e were perfectly satisfied. 

In the absence of the proper functionary to admit 
us to the interior of the temple, we were unable to 
enter. But, doubtless, we shall enjoy many oppor-. 
nitles of the sort. 

There was a great famine in the Madras Presi- 
dency. Two partial failures of the rice-crop were fol- 
lov/ed by a drought which threatened a total failure 
of the third. The distress was very great. Under 
British rule, the country, never being devastated 
by petty wars, has become over-populous. There 
is only one cereal produced, and when that fails 
the crowded millions must suffer. Government 
is doing all it can to meet the. emergency, by 
importing rice from Burmah and Siam, and, I 
belieyej frora Cochin China. Ships bring it faster 
than the railr-oad^ can carry It to the Interior. It lie^ 
in saeks on the boaoitj m immense banks, But, after 
%li with so many srniruon§ on Ih^ kMk ©f stirvMte^ 



202 CEYLON, MADRAS, CALCUTTA. 

the supply is inadequate, and, if this crop does fail 
utterly, many must perish. Cholera and small-pox 
were abroad, adding their terrors to the great calam- 
ity, so that the people were in a pitiable case. 

The famine extended over the whole of the lower 
Carnatic and Mysore. Bengal and the northern 
provinces had gOod crops, and are having abundant 
rains again this season. 

There is a populous Chinese cemetery here, which 
indicates a period of Chinese immigration and resi- 
dence in large numbers. But, latterly, they have 
abandoned the place, I know not why. It may be 
pleasant to our California friends to know that they 
do not stay forever in every place to which they 
may swarm. 

From Madras to Calcutta we had a perfectly 
smooth sea, which was to be expected at this season 
of the year; but about two weeks before there had 
been a cyclone out of season. We accepted our 
exemption as a continued manifestation of the good- 
ness of God. It can never be amiss to realize our 
dependence, and to respond to the tokens of his 
love. 

We had indulged the hope of spending Sunday in 
Calcutta, but our steamer was delayed so long, both 
at Galle and Madras, discharging an unusually heavy 
cargo, that it was five o'clock Sunday evening before 
we cast anchor in the Hooghly river, so that the 
Lord's day was spent at sea again. The Rev. Geo. 
Baugh read the English Church-service, after which 
I preached a rather long sermon, on the parable of 
the prodigal son, and H, closed. We felt that the 
day was not wasted. 



CEYLON, MADRAS, CALCUTTA. 203 

Calcutta is situated on the east bank of the 
Hoogh'ly river, which is the westernmost of the 
channels through which the Ganges reaches the Bay 
of Bengal. There are two of these principal chan- 
nels, and the vast alluvial region at the head of the 
Bay is checked with smaller ones. These lowlands 
are but slightly elevated above the sea-level. In 
November last a strong north wind, which continued 
for several days, drove the waters of the Bay sea- 
ward, when suddenly a cyclone, of unusual violence, 
coming from the south, massed the waters so that, as 
they swept up along the narrowing Bay, they rose to 
such a height as to sweep inland for many miles. 
These lowlands are very productive, and thickly in- 
habited, and the estimated loss of life is over 200,- 
000. A similar storm occurred about half a century 
ago, and the loss of life at that time was estimated at 
300,000. 

Just before sunset we went ashore in a native boat, 
landing at the Princeps Ghat, which is an ornamental 
gate with Corinthian columns, rather an imposing 
structure, erected in honor of some great English- 
man. Either at this or another Ghat, I am not sure 
which, the Viceroys, the distinguished military men, 
and Lords Bishops, always land, being received by a 
grand salute from the guns of Fort William. 

We landed on a shelving bank, and had to be 
carried to the dry land by two coolies, who offered 
us a sort of hand-barrow to sit on. We had a ride 
of about two miles to the Great Eastern Hotel. The 
greater part of the drive was by the Strand Road, 
with the river and shipping on our left, and Fort 
William and other open grounds on our right. The 



204 CEYLON, MADRAS, CALCUTTA. 

street is a beautiful one, and as v/e drove along we 
saw it sprinkled after a novel fashion. A number of 
men were employed, each one having a dressed 
sheep's skin, sewed up except at the neck. These, 
filled with water, showed the outlines of the sheep, 
and were suspended from the bearer's neck by a 
strap just long enough to let it rest on the left hip, 
while the neck was grasped by his right hand. 
Giving a jerk by a movement of his whole body, ^he 
allowed the water to spurt through his fingers, and 
the jet thus produced was sprinkled over a consider- 
able surface. Human muscle here, as in China, costs 
but little, and I suppose this is as cheap a mode of 
watering the streets as any other. 

We found the Great Eastern Hotel crowded, but 
got very good quarters at the Hotel de France. 
After dinner, at 7 p. m., we walked out, and seeing a 
church well-lighted, determined to go in. We in- 
stantly discovered by the hymn-book that we were 
among our brethren of the M. E. Church. This was 
the closing one of a series of special services. The 
pastor is evidently an earnest man. The house is a 
spacious structure, very neat, and the congregation 
was a good one. The next morning we called 
on Dr. Thoburn, the pastor, but he had just left town. 
We heard him very highly spoken of. 

The English part of the city is filled with impos- 
ing edifices. The public buildings are on a grand 
scale. The Viceroy's palace, though the design is 
considered faulty, is a very large, and, upon the 
whole, a beautiful building. The zoological gardens 
are large, and contain several species of beasts and 
birds which I never saw before; among them the 



CEYLON, MADRAS, CALCUTTA. 205 

tapir, the spotted-deer, the barking-deer, the hog- 
deer, several species of bovine animals, a species of 
seal with a perfect quadrupedal form, but with the 
head and neck, and all the habits and instincts of the 
seal ; and many others that I cannot take space even 
to name. 

We visited, too — not the garden of Eden exactly, 
but — " The Eden Garden." These fine grounds were 
given to the city by the Misses Eden, sisters of Lord 
Auckland, who was once the Governor-General of 
India. 

Of the condition of the natives, and the work of 
God in this vast city, I must defer speaking till an- 
other time. One thing I will say now. I have the 
conviction that China is in fact a better Mission-field 
than India. I must add that my observation is not 
sufficient to justify me in settling down upon any 
conclusion, and if I see cause to change my mind I 
shall be careful to say so. 

By the way, we find the Chinaman here again. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

CALCUTTA. 

IT WOULD puzzle a man of ordinary understand- 
ing to say where the mouth of the Hooghly river 
is. It may, with propriety, I suppose, be held 
to be 80 or 100 miles below Calcutta. But if you 
count the mouth only from the point at which you 
begin to see l.and on both sides of you, it is within 
forty or fifty miles of the city. 

As we approached, we were in conversation with 
a gentleman who was an old resident of India, and 
were told by him that while at hotels we would find 
it expedient to hire a personal servant, who would 
see that our rooms were supplied with every neces- 
sary article, look after our washing, wait on us at 
table, and so forth. Besides all this, he would be 
our guide in visiting objects of interest. 

We had no sooner secured our room? at the hotel 
than a man offered himself for employment — Cheady 
Lall, by name. He spoke English well enough, and 
had an unlimited supply of recommendations from 
gentlemen whom he had served. After a moment's 
consultation we agreed to employ him for the two or 
three days we would be in the city, as it would cost 
us but a shiUing a day each. He was to come early 
Monday morning. He was on hand in good time, 
blacked our boots, brushed our clothes, took charge 



CALCUTTA. 207 

of our soiled linen, and made himself useful gener- 
ally. But when we came to breakfast, where was 
Cheady ? We expected him to be at the back of 
our chairs, as other gentlemen had their servants, 
ready to break his neck for us, running between din- 
ing-room and kitchen. But our particular servant was 
non est inventus! Cheady Lall, this man of so many 
certificates, this man who had served generals, and 
counts, and reverends, with so much fidelity and 
activity, must give an account of this dereliction. 
Trust Cheady for that ! He will be ready with an 
explanation that must satisfy any reasonable man. 
The trouble is in his caste. Men of his caste never 
serve at the table. It would be a disgrace, a degra- 
dation. Cheady will black boots, brush clothes, 
look after soiled linen, carry slops, lick the dust — but 
wait on the table ? Never ! An honorable Sudra 
would starve first. Should he do such a thing he 
would lose his caste, and death would be better . 
than that. 

I have introduced this incident, not on its own 
account, but as illustrative of life in Hindostan — for 
the purpose of showing, first, how imperious a thing 
caste is here, and, secondly, how arbitrary are the 
rules regulating it. 

Monday we spent the morning bringin.g up our 
correspondence, mailing it, getting our traveling 
through I .dia arra^iged f^r, drawing on our letters q^ 
credit, a^.d getting a :d consulting guide-books. We 
m.ide some effort, a^-so, t3 see missionaries, but were 
not ''lucky," They w?-^ ^' out/' I -i the afternoon 
vv i w ;.it t> the ZoQ-og'.. :l Garden. W* d:^termined 
ts? m4kc Tuesday a g:eat day. We would begiii 



208 CALCUTTA. 

early, and do a good half-day's work before break- 
fast. Cheady was to come and have coffee and toast 
for us early. By the way, he never objected to bring 
coffee and toast to our rooms, though he could not 
wait on the table. By about sunrise we would start 
for the Botanical Gardens. But our faithful and 
efficient servant was late, so that it was near 8 
o'clock when we got off. Then we found the float- 
ing bridge across the Hooghly, which lay between us 
and the gardens, opened for ships to pass, so that we 
could not cross. What now ? " Visit the Burning 
Ghat," said Cheady ; " it is near by." To the Burn- 
ing Ghat, accordingly, we drove, to witness the 
Hindoo process of cremation. Several bodies were 
in different stages of the process, which is simple 
enough. The body is placed in the center of a pile 
of wood made on the ground, with a good air pass- 
age at the bottom. Into the air-passage a good 
supply of kindling is placed, so as to insure simulta- 
neous ignition of all parts. The men engaged in the 
work have poles, with which they throw up the fallen 
brands, so as to keep a hot fire upon every portion 
of the body. They seem to be as cheerful and 
ready for a joke and laugh as any men we have met 
with. I was surprised to see the small quantity of 
fuel with which a body may be wholly reduced to 
ashes. 

If I should say the sight was horrible, the term 
would not exceed the truth, so far as the impression 
made upon me was concerned. Yet I doubt not that 
the mind of the Hindoo would be equally shocked at 
thQ thought of J3€ing ggv^^^d wp |n t,hf SfiJtU an^ l^^l 



CALCUTTA. 209 

I was careful to keep on the windward side, so as 
r.ot to get the odor of burning human flesh. Some 
of our party were less fortunate. The impression 
rnade through one organ was all I could consent to 
commit to the custody of my memory. But there 
was play given to the imagination in facts still recent 
in Hindoo history. Add to the sight we had, the 
spectacle of the living wife, bound upon the pile, to 
be consumed with her dead husband ! 

The ashes are gathered up in baskets and com- 
mitted to the sacred Ganges — the Hooghly here — on 
the bank of which the burning is done. We saw 
the ashes of those consumed the day before being 
removed. 

From this place we drove through the largest of 
the native bazaars. There seemed to be some rather 
large stocks of goods in some of the shops, but we 
have never anywhere seen them kept in such misera- 
ble dens — so small, so dark, so repulsive. Later in 
the day we entered one which was not over six feet 
wide, from wall to wall, by ten feet deep, and seven 
from floor to ceiling, with no light except through 
the front entrance. The goods were literally packed 
along the sides from bottom to top. The persistency 
of the salesmen, if possible, exceeds that cf Ceylon 
and the Straits. Indeed, you are constantly assailed 
on the streets with the offer of knives, handkerchiefs, 
walking-sticks, and ail manner of small articles. One 
fellow ran after our gharry at a trot, thrusting his 
wareg at mQ with beseeching importunity, 

The houses of the poorer clashes fire yer^ rniserar 
ble, I think they average lower than in any pou.ntry 
lye have been In/though \ ha4 fJ-^"^!} 'f\^ i ,^uppQse4 



210 CALCUTTA. 

could scarcely be worse this side of a purel/ 
nomadic state. To be sure, there are many houses 
of a better class, and some few very magnificent 
ones, but I should think that at least three-fourths of 
all the people live in huts, made of mud plastered 
upon a slight bamboo frame, many of them being so 
low that a man can stand erect only in the center. 

Then we visited the new market-house. It would 
do credit to any American city. It embraces an 
entire square, fronting on four streets. There is an 
open court in the center of the square, neatly laid 
off, and planted v/ith flowers. Part of the space in 
the market-house is occupied with tables for the dis- 
play of meats and vegetables, but many of the vege- 
tables are spread out on the floor, the vendors squat- 
ting over them. In fact, the amount of squatting 
done in India is very amusing to a Western man. In 
the part devoted to the sale of beef there are three 
compartments, each one having a sign in a promi- 
nent place, ''First-class," "Second-class," ''Third- 
class." But what strikes a traveler, mainly, is the 
noise of human voices in a high key. Every pur- 
chaser is pursued and shouted after, and importuned 
to buy, until the place might well be mistaken for 
bedlam. 

It v/as now breakfast-time, and we were ready for it. 

Afier breakfast, the bridge being adjusted, we went 
to the Botanical Gardens, which were originated in 
1786, under the auspices of the Honorable East 
India Company. They have an area of two hundred 
and seventy-two acres, well laid Oif, and a great 
variety of shrubbery' and flowers, b^th native and 
exotic. There is a remarkable collection of orchids. 



\ CALCUTTA. 211 

Beautiful avenues of palm-trees, of several varieties, 
add greatly to the general effect. There is a banyan- 
tree, a hundred years old, which looks for all the 
world like a grove of trees. The lower branches run 
out horizontally not less than eighty feet, and not 
less than one hundred and seventy aerial roots drop 
from various heights, and fasten in the ground. 
These roots are very small at first, and look like 
strings dangling in the air, some of them thirty or 
forty feet long, but most of them shorter. When 
once they touch the ground, and enter it, they begin 
to enlarge their diameter, and, in course of time, each 
stem becomes, itself, quite a tree. There are some 
fine specimens of mahogany, peepul, asoke, casu- 
arina, climbing-palms, and, indeed, a variety so great 
that it fatigues my memory. The conservatory for 
orchids, alone, is two hundred feet long. In a prom- 
inent position is a monument to Gen. Kid, the 
founder of the garden. How the English may be at 
home I do not know, but here in India there is a 
great rage for monuments and statues. 

This garden has not been devoted exclusively to 
art and pleasure. Through its management the cul- 
tivation of tea has been introduced into Assam, and 
the cinchona has been thoroughly acclimated in India. 

After tiffin we went to visit one of the largest Mis- 
sion-schools in Calcutta — that of the Free Church of 
Scotland — but we were too late. The recitations 
were over for the day, and the professors gone. But 
we were politely received by a janitor, and shown 
through the building, which is large and well-ar- 
ranged. As we were about leaving we met with one 
of the native professors, an elegant and intelligent- 



212 CALCUTTA. 

looking man, who was very polite and communica- 
tive. He informed us that the heathen teachers in 
the institution numbered twenty, and the Christian 
six. We asked him if he was himself a Christian. 
*'No," said he, "I am a heathen." To his ear there 
was no opprobrium in the word. 

We then called on Mr. Macalister, the American 
Consul, who received us with great cordiality. He 
said that he could, and would be glad to, get us a per- 
mit to visit the grounds of the King of Oude. It will 
be remembered that this King was concerned in the 
Sepoy rebellion, and that he was deposed by the 
British Government, and compelled to fix his resi- 
dence in the suburbs of Calcutta. His palace is on 
the bank of the Hooghly, in full view from the steam- 
ers as they approach the city. A large pension is 
paid him, which he spends lavishly, living in Oriental 
grandeur. His grounds are large, and the variety of 
shrubbery and rare flowers is very great. Besides 
this, he has a large collection of animals. The Con- 
sul assured us that the place would well repay a visit. 
But our permit never came, the proper functionary 
being out of town. Mr. Macalister called at our 
hotel to inform us. Finding us out, he left a very 
pleasant note, expressing his regrets. We shall not 
forget his kindness. It is due to add that the repre- 
sentatives of our Government abroad, wherever we 
have found them, have extended to us every courtesy 
that we could desire. 

Upon the whole, we were very glad, in the end, 
that we did not visit the grounds of the ex-king, as 
we occupied the time much more profitably in visit- 
ing several missionaries. Our first call was upon the 



CALCUTTA. 2 I 3 

Rev. Mr. Lewis, of the English Baptist Mission. He 
is the Secretary of the Mission, and Superintendent 
of the press. We were sorry to find him partially 
paralyzed. He received us most Christianly ; but 
the effort to converse was evidently distressing, so 
we made our visit short. Next door was Dr. Wen- 
ger, of the same Mission, who had been engaged 
chiefly in the work of translation. He is a German, 
a man of great learning, great simplicity of character, 
now advanced in years, and one of the oldest mis-, 
sionaries in India. In an hour we learned more 
about India and the Mission-work from him than we 
had been able to gather from all other sources. He 
knew exactly what to say, and how to say it — a rare 
gift. In a luminous sentence or two he made plain 
what we had sought in vain from others. He 
seemed to know every thing, ^nd the slightest hint 
on our part was sufficient to bring a fund of informa- 
tion which twenty well-directed questions would not 
have sufficed to pump out of an ordinary man. If I 
had been with an apostle I could scarcely have ven- 
erated him more. Noble man ! his work will soon 
be done, but a glorious crown awaits him. 

The next place we visited was "The School of 

Useful Arts," under the control of Mr. , an 

American Unitarian. This gentleman is a rich spec- 
imen of the genus Yankee, and is evidently a man of 
a good deal of force in a very fussy way. He has a 
boys' school, and one for girls. We found him up 
to his chin in preparation for the celebration of 
Washington's birth-day. He was going to have the 
public in, to make a speech, to have singing by the 
school under big Washington flags, to have Longfel- 



214 CALCUTTA. 

low's Psalm of Life recited, and I know not what all. 
He received us in a demonstative way, flew around 
to show us every thing, ran over an empty box, read 
us a controversial paper he was preparing for the 
press on ex-tidtions versus intuitions^ declared we 
looked like Americans — talked like a streak of light- 
ning — and amused us much. We learned afterward 
that he had once united himself formally with the 
Brahmo Somaj ; but Chunder Sen was too intuitional, 
too devout, for him. The great Hindoo, so pro- 
foundly intuitional, and the spry American, so 
actively ex-tuitional, could not walk together, not 
being agreed, albeit the fundamental tenet of both 
was the same. 

Across the way from the " School of Useful Arts" 
is a house of good size, with a modest title on the 
gate, in these words, if I remember correctly, 
"American Mission Home." It is occupied ex- 
clusively by ladies sent out by the " Woman's Union 
Missionary Society" of America. The ladies were 
all out when we called, but we saw Miss Sunder, the 
Principal of a school taught in the house, but not 
connected with the work. We called again after 
dinner, and met with all the ladies of the Mission. 
The hour we had to spare was gone before we knew 
it. These ladies are an honor to their country and 
to the Church. Full of intelligence, full of faith, 
full of zeal, they have devoted themselves to a work 
which none but women can do in India — the Zenana 
work. 

The Hindoo lady is kept in the closest possible 
seclusion. The upper apartments of the house are 
so constructed that no one can see into them from 



CALCUTTA, 215 

without, nor see out, except upward, from within. 
The name of these secluded apartments is " Zenana." 
No man, except a member of the household, ever 
enters. Usually there are several women in every 
household, the customs of the country being such 
that generally several women are dependent on the 
head of every house. For instance, no widow is 
allowed to marry again. But marriages generally 
take place in childhood, a girl being usually mar- 
ried to some boy by the time she is nine years old. 
A few years later, while they are both very young, 
they begin to live together, but during the interval 
they never meet — so there are multitudes of widows 
in India who never saw their husbands. 

Of late there is beginning to be a movement in 
India in favor of female education. This opens the 
way of inteUigent European and American ladies 
into the Zenana. When a man determines to 
have the women of his family taught, missionary 
ladies are applied to. Native women, already con- 
verted and educated, are sent as teachers, and twice 
a v/eek the missionary ladies ^o in to inspect the 
work and talk of Christ and salvation. In no other 
way can the gospel reach them, as they can never 
go abroad, and therefore never hear preaching. The 
ladies of the American Zenana Mission have over 
800 pupils in their household-schools. Besides them 
there are others engaged in the same work ; but what 
the aggregate of all the Zenana work amounts to I 
do not know. 

Except from Dr. Wenger, our most valuable infor- 
mation as to the state of the work in Calcutta, w9.s 
obtained from these ladies, 



2l6 CALCUTTA. 

The next thing we did was to visit the Town Hall, 
and one or two other public buildings, which are 
massive and spacious, but noteworthy chiefly for the 
portraits and statues of distinguished men. I was 
glad to see Warren Hastings in the most prominent 
place, as I have for years had the conviction that he 
was unjustly dealt by. Nor was I displeased to find 
Lord Cornwallis in the next most prominent place. 
The fame he failed to win in America, he did most 
worthily earn here. His administration of the affairs 
of India is universally regarded as wise, vigorous, 
and beneficent. His statue represents a man of 
noble port. It is full-length, and the olive-branch is 
in his right hand. 

We saw the portraits of two Hindoos in the Town 
Hall, and the busts of two others. You would know 
the portraits to be Hindoos at once by the complex- 
ion ; but the busts would be taken for Europeans, 
were it not for the drapery. The type of features 
among the Hindoos is strikingly similar to that of 
Europeans. I have been struck with this as much 
as with any one fact that has come under my obser- 
vation. I have not seen a face that approaches the 
Mongol caste, much less the negro, or the American 
Indian, but any man I have seen would be accepted 
at once as a Caucasian, if his skin were only white. 
In fact, instances of the pug nose are much more 
rare than with us. Almost every nose is aquiline or 
Grecian, the Grecian being, by far, the most common 
pattern, I believe I am about ready to, receive the 
theory of the Aryan, or Indo-European race, as 
embracing the Hindoo an4 ^yropean in a comroQi} 
Stock? 



CALCUTTA. 21/ 

Our stay in Calcutta was too short. We ought to 
have visited Keshub Chunder Sen, the very distin- 
guished leader of the Brahmo Somaj — Brahmo, the 
adjective form of Brahm, God — Somaj, an organiza- 
tion, or society. Brahm is a different word, having 
a totally different root from Bramha, which is the 
name of one of the gods of the Hindoo Trinity. In 
the one the h comes before the m ; in the other, after 
it. Brahm is the Infinite One. 

The Brahmo Somaj was organized in 1830, by 
Ram Mohm Roy, its object being to rescue the peo- 
ple from the worship of false gods, and establish a 
pure monotheism. After him the Society became 
languid, until in 1843 it was much revived by another 
reformer, Debendra Nath Tagore. In 1858 it 
received the accession of Keshub Chunder Sen, who 
soon became the most influential man in its ranks. 
He is generally respected as a man of blameless life. 
He is believed to be very devout and earnest. Some 
six years ago he visited England, creating quite a 
sensation there. At that time very great things 
were expected of him, but the Somaj has not in- 
creased as it was expeced to do. The Hindoo mind 
is too deeply imbued with idolatry, of the grossest 
kind, to be recovered by a mere devotional philoso- 
phy. There is no name given in heaven or in the 
earth that can rescue it, but the name of Jesus 
Christ. Our best informant, Dr. Wenger, assured us 
that the Society is not very vital at present. *' Six 
years ago," he said, '* Chunder Sen was all the fash- 
ion in Calcutta, but he is not the fashion now." 
These words fell upon my ear with great significance. 
The Brahmo Somaj is not a permanent Force, but a 



2l8 CALCUTTA. 

passing Fashion. It is not likely to survive its pres- 
ent popular leader, and even now, at the age of 
thirty-nine, he is waning. 

Already there has been a schism, and Chunder 
Sen is the leader of the " Progressive Brahmos." He 
has a Mandix in Calcutta — a house of worship much 
like a large Protestant church — and also a school in 
which young men are instructed in the new Theistic 
philosophy. Each division of the Somaj has two 
organs, one printed in Bengali and one in English. 

I must add that we are now in Benares, the sacred 
city of India, in which there are thousands of tem- 
ples, big and little, and I dare say millions of gods. 
H. has supplied himself with these latter, having 
invested two rupees. The lot numbers some six or 
eight. There is no doubt of their genuineness, as 
they were bought of a priest, who, as our guide 
assured us, was so honest that he had only ** one 
price." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

FROM CALCUTTA TO BENARES. 

WE LEFT CALCUTTA at half-past ten p. m., 
February 2i, and reached Benares the next 
day at J p. m. There is no sleeping-car on 
the train ; but, in both the first and second-cla-ss car- 
riages, the traveler will find room to lie down, and, if 
he is properly provided with bedding, he may get 
through the night very well. For four rupees and 
twelve annas — about $2.Ap — I bought a rezai and 
pillow, and, for 55 cents more, a towel, an outfit 
w^hich, with the heavy shawl I always carry, made 
me very comfortable. The rezai is a very neat-look- 
ing quilt, thickly stuffed with cotton. In addition to 
its use in the cars, it is needed in the winter, in the 
interior cities, for a bed cover, many of the hotels 
supplying nothing but a sheet. Mine has paid for 
itself already. 

The railroad from Calcutta runs up the valley of 
the Ganges for several hundred miles, keeping within 
a few miles of the river, except at one point, where 
the river makes a great circuit, the road making a 
direct line. When we awoke in the morning we 
found ourselves passing through a level region, with 
isolated hills rising boldly here and there ; but, soon 
coming nearer to the river, we lost sight of all hills, 
and throughout the day our horizon bounded a dead 



220 FROM CALCUTTA TO BENARES. 

level on all sides. It is nearly all in cultivation, 
many reaches of it reminding us of a Western 
prairie. But, generally, there are groves, or rather 
orchards, of mangroves in sight, and every here and 
there an avenue of palms belted the horizon, the 
naked bole standing against the sky with its tuft of 
foliage at the top. 

Our way led through the great opium region. The 
poppy-fields were in full bloom. The species grown 
for opium has a white flower, the petals being single. 
The white fields dotting the open landscape formed 
a pleasant picture for the eye. In the early part of 
the day rice-fields alternated with the poppy, but 
later, wheat and barley seemed to be the principal 
cereals. We saw a few small patches of oats, with 
here and there an acre or two of tobacco. There is 
also a good deal of millet, as well as sugar-cane, of a 
small, but very rich species. Many varieties of 
nutritious vegetables are grown, and in large quanti- 
ties. The castor-oil plant must be added. 

The mangrove is a valuable fruit, the groves of 
which remind one of apple-orchards, supposing the 
apple-tree to be of unusual size. These orchards 
relieve the level landscape, and vary the monotonous 
scene very pleasantly. 

The rural population live in villages, and many of 
the people must, go two or three miles to cultivate 
their fields. The huts that constitute the villages 
stand close together, often in a confused way, leav- 
ing only sufficient space for foot-passengers between 
them. 

The spring crops of wheat and barley are just 
coming to maturity. These crops, they tell us, are 



FROM CALCUTTA TO BENARES. 221 

unusually heavy, but the yield would be considered 
light in America. We were informed, however, that 
the yield of grain is greater than an American would 
expect, the head being large and well-filled. The 
barley grov/s about a foot high; the wheat a little 
higher. But the wonder is that the land produces as 
well as it does, the same fields having been cultivated 
age after age for thousands of years, without any 
manuring, almost every thing that might be utilized 
to that end being carefully dried and used for fuel. 
In China and Japan every thing that can be made 
compost of is used to enrich the soil. The contrast 
in India in this respect is complete. 

The plow is of wood, with an iron point, two or 
three inches long, the size of a man's finger; so that 
as there is no manuring, there is no deep plowing. 
With this mere scratching of the surface from year 
to year, the valley of the Ganges feeds its millions, 
yielding two harvests a year. 

I saw a man cutting wheat with a very small 
sickle. He was in a squat posture, and cut the straw 
at the very surface of the ground. Contrast that 
with a McCormack reaper ! I doubt if the implements 
of labor here have been at all improved in two thou- 
sand years. I wish you could see them expressing 
the juice of the sugar-cane! There is a large block 
of wood, hollowed like a mortar, with a hole from 
the bottom of the hollow to let the juice run out. 
The cane is cut into pieces of an inch or two long, 
and put into the mortar. Then a beam, of a very 
heavy species of wood, having the lower end rounded 
and setinto the mortar, the beam being supported 
by a rude frame, at an angle of eight or ten degrees 



222 FROM CALCUTTA TO BENARES. 

from an upright position, is made to revolve in the 
mortar by ox-power. The sugar made in this way 
is of a very dark color, but might be purified and 
refined, no doubt, up to the standard of the best 
American article. All sorts of native manufactures 
are produced in the same crude way, the only im- 
proved machinery being in the hands of Europeans 
or Americans. 

The people of India are in extreme poverty. Of 
course there are a good many individuals who are 
well-to-do, and some who are wealthy. Some rajahs 
and nawabs (nabobs), in fact, have enormous reve- 
nues. But the cultivator of the soil, after he pays his 
taxes and rents, barely lives. Barely lives, I say; 
that is, he has what rice and vegetables will fill him 
from day to day, a mud hut to shelter his family, a 
mat to sleep on and a loin-cloth, which cost him 
about fifty cents, and will last six months or a year. 
Sometimes the cloth, which is cotton, is large enough 
to drop down about his legs, but very often it will 
only cover the loins and hips. The hired laborer 
gets two annas — six cents — a day. This will procure 
him sufficient rice, and about what I have mentioned 
above in the way of shelter and clothing. 

Of course ignorance abounds. In Calcutta, which 
is exceptionally favored with respect to educational 
advantages, in a population of near 500,000, less 
than 100,000 can read, and of these only 10,000 are 
women. Of these women the greater number are 
either Europeans or Indo-Europeans. Take the 
country over, I do not suppose that one in twenty 
has any knowledge of letters — perhaps not one in 
fifty. Of the native women there are none who can 



FROM CALCUTTA TO BENARES. 223 

read except those who have been taught in Mission- 
schools. Brahmanism, Buddhism and Mohamme- 
danism have all had their turn in India, and precious 
little have they done for the common people. It 
remains to be seen if the elevating power of Chris- 
tianity can reach them and raise them to a higher 
plane. 

That they are capable of elevation, Is the opinion 
of the most intelhgent missionaries I have conversed 
with on the subject. From all I hear, I conclude 
that they are not inferior to the European in intellec- 
tual capacity. A want of vigor there may be — an 
absence, alike, of the spring and endurance found in 
higher latitudes — but not of native intelligence, 
though it is the opinion of some that there are spe- 
cific differences of mental development. One mis- 
sionary of large experience, a representative of the 
London Missionary Society, told me that they excel 
in mathematics and in logic, but are wanting in 
common sense. Through want of common sense they 
often set out with faulty premises, but the argument 
from the premises wall always be perfect; and once 
in a line of logical sequences, the Hindoo will follow 
it, no matter which way it leads or where it lands. 

There has always been a class of learned men in 
India, very intellectual, very subtle — perhaps even 
profound. But I do not know enough about the 
facts to write with confidence as to the range of their 
learning. Much of their literature, nearly all of it, I 
suppose, is of the religious type, and, certainly, a large 
part of it is ridiculous enough ; but it is not wanting 
in acuteness and ingenuity. 

It was dark when we reached the Benares station. 



224 FROM CALCUTTA TO BENARES. 

Taking a gharry, we crossed the Ganges on a bridge 
of boats, and drove two or three miles to the Euro- 
pean suburbs, where v/e found pleasant quarters at 
the Civil Service Hotel. Benares is one of the oldest 
of all the Indian cities. It seems to have enjoyed the 
reputation of a ** sacred city" from immemorial times. 
Here Sakya Muni, now called Buddha, the son of a 
petty king of the old times, established himself at the 
outset of his career, that he might have the prestige 
of the holy city to give weight to his doctrine. The 
site of the old city is some six miiles from that of the 
present one. The ruins have been partly excavated, 
with rich results in the way of Buddhist remains. 
The area of the ruins, consisting chiefly of well-pre- 
served brick, lying to the depth of many feet upon 
the ground, is very large. They are supposed to be 
the remains of sacred buildings. One immense col- 
umn, partly of stone and partly of brick, still stands, 
though very greatly mutilated. It is said to com- 
memorate the spot where Buddha began to expound 
the law. It was once entirely encased in stone richly 
carved, but now the lower part is disfigured by the 
removal of large quantities of stone for use in mod- 
ern buildings. 

Much of the brick in these ruins is in perfect pre- 
servation. It was burned very thoroughly, and is 
as hard as you can imagine brick to be. We saw a 
well, walled with it, believed to be not less than one 
thousand years old, perhaps much more, the wall 
being now as solid and perfect as at the first. It was 
laid in mortar of a quality as superior as the brick 
itself. The tradition is that the buildings were de- 
stroyed by force and violence, when the Mohamme- 



FROM CALCUTTA TO BENARES. 22^ 

dan invaders made a furious onslaught on the sacred 
places of the idolatrous followers of Buddha. I can 
well believe it, for such solid masonry would not 
have been so utterly destroyed by the ordinary 
agencies of decay, as the perfect preservation of the 
few remaining fragments testifies. 

But Buddhism has perished out of India. Only 
slight traces of it remain on the continent. It still 
has a strong hold in the Island of Ceylon, but even 
there it is falling into decay. They do certainly err 
who say that there is a revival of Buddhism any- 
where in the world. The contrary fact is conspicu- 
ously true. It is perishing in India, and the symp- 
toms of incipient decadence are apparent in China 
and Japan. How it may be in Burmah and Siam, I 
do not know. 

Buddhism, which was already on the decline, got 
its final death-blow in India from the Mohamme- 
dans ; but they, in turn, are on the decrease. Brah- 
manism, which was before Buddhism, is unquestion- 
ably the prevailing religion of the country now. As 
to what its prospects are in presence of an advanc- 
ing Christian civilization, I may offer an opinion after 
I shall have time for larger observation. 

Between Sarnath and Benares is a most remark- 
able moimd, made entirely of brick. It is at least 150 
feet high, and about 400 yards in circumference at 
the base. My first impression was that it was a pile 
of ruins, but not so. It was never any thing but a 
mound of solid brick; very hard brick, and laid in 
the best of mortar. The Government has excavated 
it in two directions. The work is solid from top to 
bottom. It is believed to have been built by the 

*8 . — - 



226 EROM CALCUTTA TO BENARES. 

Buddhists, but in later times the Brahmans built a 
small temple or tower on the summit of it, which is 
still standing, though a good deal mutilated. 

True to its traditional character, Benares is still, 
more than any other in India, the sacred city. An 
actual census shows it to have over i,ooo temples, 
besides many small structures and shrines devoted 
to pious uses, although the population is less than 
300,000. The city is situated on the left bank of the 
Ganges, the sacred river, and at a point where the 
river is yet more sacred than elsewhere. On this 
side the bank of the river rises rapidly to a height of 
perhaps 150 feet above the water. On this slope, 
fronting the river, the great temples are built so 
close, and massed in a way so confused, that the 
effect on the beholder is singular. Bayard Taylor 
went into raptures over the beauty of it. Not so 
this present traveler. There is a certain aspect of 
imposing massiveness, and some individual struc- 
tures, especially towers, that are beautiful enough; 
but the effect, upon the whole, at least to my eye, is 
not in any high degree pleasing. The jumble of 
heterogeneous styles and sizes, with walls standing 
at all conceivable angles with reference to each 
other, is not beautiful. Then there is the touch of 
mildew and decay everywhere. Our view of it was 
from a boat, drifting slowly down with the current. 

But, if the buildings did not greatly interest me, 
the sight of the people in their morning ablutions, 
along the edge of the river, did. Many of them were 
pilgrims who had come to take a plunge in the 
sacred river, at this spot where its waters are so effi- 
cacious. They wade out to where the water is two 



FROM CALCUTTA TO BENARES. 22/ 

or three feet in depth. Women mingle with the men. 
The Httle clothing they wear is not removed, so that 
there is no indecency in this mingling of the sexes. 
Certain religious rites are used at the same time, one 
of which is to pour out water to the sun. 

Just on the bank of the river is a shallow well of 
filthy, stagnant water into which the great multitudes 
of people plunge, imagining that all their sins are left 
behind when they emerge. There is another well in 
one of the temples which we visited, called " The 
Well of Knowledge." Into this the people are con- 
stantly throwing offerings of various kinds of grain 
and flowers, so that the stench of the decaying mat- 
ter is extremely offensive. But the water is wonder- 
fully holy, and a priest sits continually drawing up 
the putrid stuff, which he sells to devotees. So silly 
is the superstition of these people. Indeed it is 
impossible for me to convey to my reader any just 
view of the many silly things connected with the 
religion of the Hindoos, or of the extreme to which 
the silliness is carried. They have sacred rivers, 
sacred trees, sacred bulls, sacred — every thing, 
almost. The monkey is especially sacred. Images 
of the "monkey god " are very numerous. Here in 
Benares there is a ''monkey temple," which we visit- 
ed. About this building there are hundreds, per- 
haps thousands, of monkeys. They are all of one 
species — a very common and uninteresting species. 
Being fed here, they remain in the vicinity, but have 
the freedom of the neighborhood, pilfering every 
exposed article of food, and the superstitious people 
never dare to treat them rudely. As the custom of 
visitors is, we purchased a few cents' worth of rice 



228 FROM CALCUTTA TO BENARES. 

and threw it to them. They scrambled for it and 
fought over it as if they might have been mere 
brutes ; but these Hindoos have built them this tem- 
ple and do actually worship them. Yet there are 
not wanting educated Englishmen who write flatter- 
ing things of Brahmanism, and hold that one form of 
religion is about as good as another. Surely, no 
such degraded objects of devotion can tend to any- 
thing else but degradation in the worshiper. 

But, if the siUiness of Hindoo superstition were the 
worst of it, it would, though inconceivably degrading, 
be yet a noble thing compared to what it really is. 
The popular reHgion of India is in the last degree 
depraved. It is, beyond conception, evil in its moral 
phases. Starting out with a high conception of life, 
it fell to worshiping the source of life. From this 
beginning it has gone on in a descending scale until 
it has deified lust. The Hindoo trinity are Bramha, 
Vishnu and Mahadeo. The symbols under which 
this last are worshiped are too gross to be named. 
Yet these are the very symbols which abound more 
than any other in the temples at Benares, and in 
many other places, while our observation is that 
these symbols receive a more enthusiastic devotion 
than is paid to any other images. The ardor of 
women in these devotions is a most noticeable fact. 

The moral effect of this is seen everywhere. 
There are no virtuous men in India. As for the 
women, no man will trust his wife outside of the 
zenana, except the very poor, whose women are 
compelled to labor for bread. The temples have a 
class of dancing-girls connected with them who are 
said to be married to the gods. This is considered 



FROM CALCUTTA TO BENARES. 



229 



an honor, and a family is proud when a girl is chosen 
out of it for this distinction. These girls perform 
indecent dances in the temple-grounds, at festivals, 
to bring a crowd of people. They are all prostitutes, 
and their hire goes into the treasury of the temple. 
The priests, so far as I can learn, do not make any 
pretense of sexual purity. They are all vile. 

This picture is a black one, but my readers may 
rest assured that it is not overdrawn. 

All this is in shocking contrast with one thing we 
saw in China. Among the countless images wor- 
shiped in that great Empire, there is not one that 
suggests the thought of impurity. There is no 
approach to it. In their symbols there is much that 
is grotesque, much that is, in some respects, shock- 
ing, but nothing sensual, nothing gross. So far forth 
the Chinese are at an infinite remove from the Hin- 
doos. Yet, in the matter of absurdity, the worship 
of the one is on a level with that of the other. In 
China there is a more abject fear of the gods than 
here. What a Chinaman hopes for is more to keep 
his gods from falhng angry with him. He does not 
really look for positive blessing so much, except it 
may be from the god of riches. He is run after and 
courted a good deal. 

I expressed the opinion with caution, in another 
place, that the situation in China is really more 
hopeful than in India. It will be remembered that I 
said at the same time, that my opportunity of obser- 
vation in India had not been sufficient to justify a 
decided expression of opinion. It is proper to 
say that my first view here gave me the most un- 
favorable side of things. Whether the prospect is 



230 FROM CALCUTTA TO BENARES. 

better here or not Is really matter of no moment. 
One thing is certain, the campaign is but just opened 
in both these vast regions. The Church has not yet 
begun to realize the' magnitude of her undertaking. 
Consecrated men in great numbers will have to 
devote their lives to the work. The spirit of prayer 
— the agony of unconquerable supplication — must 
come upon the universal Church. It is doubtful if 
anywhere, even in the most spiritual communities, 
there is the fullness of faith, the irrepressible ardor 
of spirit, which must be witnessed before the power 
of heathenism can b® overthrown. What a divine 
momentum will that be that will bear the hosts^ of 
God's elect forward against all the forces that rise 
against them, until the faith of Christ shall over- 
master all ! Meanwhile the work goes on — and I 
say it with deliberation — the work goes on more 
rapidly than the inadequate means employed by the 
Church would warrant us to expect. There can be 
no doubt of this. In proportion to the actual outlay 
the results are great. But in view of the work to be 
done, and the untouched resources of the Church, 
the outlay has been small indeed. I feel abashed 
before God when I think of it. 

Meanwhile the Hindoo worships Mahadeo and all 
the brood of Satan with which his mythology 
swarms — the Chinaman worships lords many and 
gods many, the spawn of his own gloomy imagina- 
tion — and both are dying in despair by millions, 
while God is robbed of his glory, and even his own 
elect people look on with apathetic indifference. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

LUCKNOW AND CAWNPORE. 

y^HE ENGLISH have India by the throat— and 
I the Sepoy rebelUon, which was a struggle of 
the victim to get loose, only tightened the 
grasp. Like the noose of a lasso, it strangles the 
more fatally in proportion to the strain of resistance. 
The Mutiny of 1857 demonstrated this. It was the 
frantic plunge of the wild horse with his neck in the 
noose. One cannot but feel a measure of sympathy 
for the victim, though, upon the whole, he may hold 
with the imperious master. There can be no doubt 
that India is better off under British rule than it ever 
was before. This rule is a pure despotism ; but in 
that respect it is just the sort of government India 
has always had, and, I suppose, the only sort it is at 
all prepared for, while it is the most enhghtened and 
beneficent despotism the country has ever known. 
All former despotisms here have been personal, the 
people being at the mercy of any individual caprice 
of Mogul or Rajah — while m this case the despot is 
the British nation, and not any individual. Every 
Governor, at least since the time of Hastings, feels 
that he is not a personal ruler, but that he represents 
the conscience of the English people, to whom he 
must account for any inhumanity of which he may 
be guilty. 



232 LUCKNOW AND CAWNPORE. 

Nor has any one man an unlimited power in India. 
The representative of the Imperial Government is 
the Viceroy in Council. The Viceroy can do noth- 
ing except with the concurrence of the Council. 
Besides that, there is a Secretary for Indian affairs in 
the British Cabinet at home, who also has his Coun- 
cil ; in addition to all which the Parliament interpo- 
ses at will, and is the supreme authority. All this 
secures a sense of responsibility among the immedi- 
ate rulers of India which never obtained in former 
times — a sense of responsibility which has secured to 
the people a better government, certainly, than they 
ever had before. Yet it is equally true that the 
authorities here maintain the authority they repre- 
sent by a very strong assertion of power. Nor could 
they otherwise maintain it at all. 

The Mogul Empire, to which the British have suc- 
ceeded, was itself an invasion — so that it is, after 
all, only one invader succeeding to the power of 
another. It is the Englishman coming In the place 
of the Tartar. It was as recent as the time of Henry 
VIII. that Babur made the conquest of a considera- 
ble portion of Northern India. This Babur was de- 
scended, by the father's side, from Timour (Tamer- 
lane), and by the mother's from Genghis Khan. He 
was therefore a Tartar of the Tartars, and his sons 
and successors, for a century or two, justified the 
illustrious blood that was in them. The great 
Akbar, the son of Hoomazoon, under whom the 
Empire suffered extreme fluctuations, extended its 
boundaries quite into the Deccan, and for two or 
three generations the war-like Mahrattas were more 



LUCKNOW AND CAWNPORE. 233 

or less completely subjugated by the imperial 
descendants of Babur. 

Yet the later Moguls could scarcely be regarded 
'as foreign princes, inasmuch as it was their custom 
to marry native princesses. But they were a luxu- 
rious race, spending in the building of palaces and 
mausoleums what might have sufficed to carry on 
the Empire. Taxes, therefore, were enormous, and 
against such oppressions the native princes not unfre- 
quently revolted with more or less success. There 
was no law of succession in the Mogul family. This 
was the occasion of wars between different claimants 
to the imperial crown. The sons of Shah Jehan 
made war among themselves while yet their father 
lived. By all these means the Empire was weak- 
ened so as scarcely to be able to maintain itself 
against repeated attacks of Mahrattas and Jats. 
Moreover, the governors of provinces sometimes 
found themselves strong enough to be practically 
independent of the imperial authority,' so as to be 
able to hold the authority and transmit it according 
to their own pleasure. 

As the Honorable East India Company extended 
their posessions and influence they found themselves 
in this disjointed and decaying Mogul Empire. The 
disintegration of the Empire occasioned many oppor- 
tunities to the managers of the Company to extend 
their domain. This they were not slow to do. The 
affairs of that great corporation were managed with 
consummate ability. Its leading spirits were states- 
men of the highest order. Blunders were rare. As a 
rule the policy was wise, and it was always carried 
out by a strong administration, British policy was 



234 



LUCKNOW AND CAWNPORE. 



favored as much by the wars and jealousies of neigh- 
boring rajahs as by the decaying state of the Mogul 
Empire. When native princes succeeded in casting 
off the yoke of the Moguls they began'at once to cut, 
each other's throats. In many instances it seemed 
as much a dictate of humanity as a stroke of policy 
to interfere. The means used were questionable 
sometimes, but never, I suppose, more so than those 
we have resorted to with the American Indians. It 
has been much the custom' with civilized people to 
treat barbarians as if they had no rights — to regard 
them much in the light of minor children, that must 
be both taken care of and governed. Perhaps it 
would be difficult to prove that this is altogether 
wrong. It was the plea on which African slavery 
was justified. 

When the charter of the East India Company ex- 
pired — which was, I believe, only about twenty years 
ago — the English Government took immediate con- 
trol of the cbuntry. It had, in fact, governed the 
Company, substantially, even during its existence — 
at least in many respects — so that, so far as India 
was concerned, the change amounted to but little. 
Within the last year the English Government has 
declared itself an Empire, in view of its possessions 
in the East — and truly it is an Empire of magnificent 
proportions. Its possessions in the South Seas, in- 
cluding Australia, would justify the title — ^while in 
India, including its possessions in Burmah and the 
Malayan Peninsula, together with the Island of Cey-- 
Ion, It has; I .§boiild mj, twm the are^ of tb.e .d14 
Mogul Implm 

U -doe^ not f4a)a> to f oyr-rn fbf wfeplf of I,rj^j% 



I 



LiJcKNow AND c:awnp6r^. ^3§ 

but reeognizes the independence, more or less com- 
plete, of several native States, such as Hyderabad 
and Mysore in the Deccan, and Nepaul in the north. 
Nepaul is entirely independent, but a certain protec- 
torate is exercised over some of the independent 
States. In some cases this protectorate is of a char- 
acter to make the independence of the native rajah a 
mere name. It is given out now that England does 
not desire to reduce any more of the native States ; 
but it is easy to see that events are very liable to 
take such a turn as to cause the absorption of many 
of them. As it is, the Empire has the lion's share. 
The population of the whole country is 250,000,000. 
Of this the British Empire exercises a direct gov- 
ernment over 180,000,000, leaving about 70,000,000 
under native princes. 

It is claimed, and I suppose with truth, that the 
burden of taxation is greatly reduced by the Eng- 
lish, and that justice is much better and more uni- 
formly administered. It is unquestionable that in- 
dustry is fostered and commerce active beyond all 
precedent of former times. This the intelligent and 
the ignorant classes both feel. This fact reconciles 
many to the dominancy of a foreign power, and 
mitigates the bitterness of the cup "with all, except 
the dethroned rajahs. Yet there is, wide-spread, a 
sense of vassalage and humiliation which many 
brood over in a sullen way, until the feeling of dis- 
content is believed to be very general. It is a com- 
mon opinion that the English are heartily hated by 
the natives. There can be no doubt that a popular 
revolution, if it could once gain sufficient head to 



536 LUCICNOW And cawnpore. 

give it hope, would command at once an immense 
and enthusiastic following. 

The discontent grows in great part out of the mere 
fact of the presence of a governing class of foreign- 
ers, of a different complexion, and an antagonistic 
religion, who do not identify themselves with the 
country, but are in every sense aliens. The English 
official is a man who comes to play his part in the 
government for a few years, to get a good salary, and 
then go home. England never ceases to be his 
home — hidia is only a place of temporary abode. 
Besides which, the bearing of the average English- 
man is such as to aggravate the evil. The average 
Englishman despises the native — holds him in great 
contempt — and takes no sort of pains to conceal the 
fact. The Government does much for the natives in 
providing facilities for the education of the masses, 
so far as it can, and giving many of them appoint- 
ments, where they are found sufficiently intelligent, 
in the post-offices, and other positions of profit and 
trust. Many individuals behave well toward them. 
But as a rule the white man, in his personal bearing 
toward the native, is supercilious and insulting. He 
says and does what he would not dare to say or do 
to a man of his own color. Nor does the native ven- 
ture to resent it, except in rare cases. He is at a 
disadvantage. There is a cantonment of British sol- 
diers at hand, and to a man they would espouse the 
quarrel of a countryman without stopping to enquire 
who was in the wrong. But the Hindoo is not a 
block of wood. He is often a high-spirited and most 
sensitive man, who treasures every insult he receives 
until his blood is hot. To make the matter worse, 



LUCKNOW AND CAWNPORE. 



237 



he has to smother down the fire ; otherwise it would 
blaze up only to die out. As it is, it never dies. 

All this the Englishman knows, but he cares 
nothing about it. He feels secure, and with reason. 
The Government is strong enough to trample out 
any rebellion before it could organize itself or gather 
any resources.. There is no unity nor good under- 
standing among the native princes. There is no 
common center. Even if there was, the English 
soldier is a match for twenty native soldiers under 
native offcers ; witness all the wars in which the 
matter has been tested. Did not a mere handful 
of men, at Lucknow, in 1857, sheltered by the frail- 
est works, defend themselves for months against a 
mad multitude of assailants, outnumbering them 
forty or fifty to one? Did not 7,000 English soldiers 
invest Delhi, protected as it was by strong works at 
all points, and defended by a well-organized native 
garrison of 70,000 or 80,000, and after a siege of a 
few weeks, storm the works and carry the place at 
the point of the bayonet? Amongst themselves the 
natives show no want of courage. They have done 
much hard fighting in times past. But in the pres- 
ence of the English they seem to expect defeat. 

Our visit to Lucknow and Cawnpore would have 
but little interest for us, but for two facts : the first of 
which was that they were both scenes of dreadful 
conflict in the time of the Mutiny. At Lucknow we 
saw and examined the ruins of the Residency. 
Lucknow was the capital and residence of the King 
of Oude. Before the Mutiny there was a British 
Resident here. Thg Resident is a man who is placed 
near a native prince whom the English think it best 



2^8 LuCKNOw And CAWNPORE. 

to watch and control. Generally where there is a 
Resident there is a camp of soldiers. Sir H. Law- 
rence was the Resident at the Court of Oudein 1857. 
He and his squad of soldiers, when hostilities began, 
established lines of defense around the Residency, so 
extensive, compared with the strength of the garri- 
son, that they could scarcely be said to be majiiied, in 
any proper sense of the word. There was a sort of 
tower and observatory connected with the Resi- 
dency-building, which served as an outlook from 
which the movements of the enemy could be discov- 
ered in every direction, and signaled to the garrison 
at every point. The Residency, and especially the 
observatory, was the object of a furious cannonade 
for weeks. The man on duty always felt himself to 
be a target for cannon-balls. Whether any one was 
killed at his post I know not, but certainly I should 
think there must have been several, for the top. of 
the tower is all shivered. The walls of the building 
below also show many openings made by the crash 
of heavy shot. 

The basement-rooms of the Residency were occu- 
pied by ladies, the wives and daughters of officers 
and soldiers, who lived here during all that fearful 
time, and who, in addition to their own sufferings 
from the excessive heat — it was July — the want of 
ventilation and consequent sickness, had all the care 
of the wounded and dying. But they were as heroic 
as the men. This shattered building is carefully 
preserved in the condition in which the Mutiny left it. 

We approached it by a massive gateway that led 
into the grounds, and which is still standing, itself 
also bearing the mark of many a ball. Through this 



LUCKNOW AND CAWNPORE. 



239 



gate Havelock entered, corning with another mere 
handful to reheve the besieged garrison. He 
actually fought his way through the city and through 
the dense masses of the besiegers, and with compar- 
atively little loss entered the garrison. Imagine the 
feelings of those men who had been shut in, looking 
at any moment for their works to be stormed, and 
they put to death to a man, when their friends 
reached them ! But the arrival of Havelock did not 
relieve the garrison. The two forces united were 
altogether insufficient for that. Both Lawrence and 
Havelock died there. But English pluck and endu- 
rance were equal to the situation, and relief did 
come at last. It does not fall in with the scope of 
my purpose, however, to write a history of this war. 
What I have said will serve to indicate the superior- 
ity of the European, and the strength of the British 
power in India. The military power seems to be 
irresistible. So far as I can see, it is likely to be 
perpetual. 

From Lucknow we went to Cawnpore, where arc 
two monuments of peculiar interest to Englishmen — 
the Memorial Well anc the Memorial Church. They 
commemorate the massacres ordered by Doondhoo 
Punth, the Nana Sahib — commonly called The Infa- 
mous. After deceiving the English into the belief 
that he was their friend, he attacked the little garri- 
son, which defended itself in imperfect works against 
overwhelming ,odds for thre.e weeks, At the end of 
thi^ tfe? J^^eir provisions failed^ and they capitulated 
or\ promise pf safe escort tp Allahabad^ but a^ they 
were getting into fooats a horrible mas.sacre was 
1b(jgun. Some wer^ already m the bpat§ wb^^ J^j^f 



240 LUCKNOW AND CAWNPORE. 

thatch covers were set on fire. Simultaneously with 
this, a fire of grape and musketry was opened upon 
them. Only four escaped to tell the tale. The men 
who were not slaughtered on the spot were driven 
off and shot elsewhere. The women and children, 
of whom there were about two hundred, were impris- 
oned in a large house called Beebeeghur. Another 
company of captives from Futtehgurh, over fifty in 
number, mostly women and children, were soon 
crowded in with them. What they suffered, crowded 
so in the dog-days, not one surv;vor remained to tell. 
On the approach of Havelock they were all murdered 
and thrown into a well.' Think of that work of slaugh- 
ter upon two hundred women and children crowded 
together in a house ! It appears that volleys were 
first fired in upon them through doors and windows, 
and then men went in to finish the work. Then the 
house was closed and left for the night, while some, 
it is believed, were not yet dead. There is even a 
suspicion that when they were thrown into the well, 
the next day, there were still some in whom life Was 
not yet extinct. 

When Havelock arrived they were all gone. . Not 
one survived. An eye-witness says : '' There were 
no dead bodies, except in the well. The well was 
narrow and deep ; and, looking down, you could see 
only a tangled mass of human limbs, entirely without 
clothing." 

This vv^ell was filled up, the ground being raised 
into a mound. On that a small, neat m.onument to 
the victims has been erected. Large grounds, full of 
shrubbery, well laid off, and neatly kept, surrgund 



LUCKNOW AND C AWN PORE. 24 1 

It. No native is ever allowed to enter this inclosure, 
without a special permit. 

The Memorial Church stands on the grounds occu- 
pied by " Wheeler's Intrenchment," where the little 
squad defended themselves against Nana Sahib's 
army of many thousands, until their provisions failed. 
They made repeated sorties, .always driving the 
enemy before them. Their feeble breastworks were 
almost demolished by the Nana's artillery, yet his 
men never dared to enter. Yet from official data, it 
appears that the garrison consisted of the following 
troops only : 

One battery, 6 guns, men 59 

Infantry, Her Majesty's '84th " 60 
Invalids, " " 32d " 74 

First Madras Fusileers, " 15 

The Memorial Church is a great and gloomy-look- 
ing structure. As a work of art and as a place of 
worship it is a failure. 

At Lucknow we were very cordially received by 
the Rev. J. H. Messmore and the Rev. J. Mudgc, of 
the India Conference of the M. E. Church. The 
former is the pastor of the Church, and the latter 
editor of the Lucknow Witness, the official organ of 
the Church in India. Here we spent a Sunday, and 
preached at the hour for English service, to a full 
and attentive congregation. 

At Cawnpore, Dr. Waugh had got wind of our 
approach, and met us at the station at eleven o'clock 
at night. What delightful hospitality we had under 
his roof! He could not tire of talking about the 
kindness he had received in Shanghai at the hands 
pf Mr. and Mrs, Lambuth^ 



242 LUCKNOW AND CAWNPORE. 

Both in Cawnpore and Lucknow the M. E. Church 
has a considerable Society among the EngHsh-speak- 
ing people. The missionaries of this Church did not 
get to work until after the Mutiny, less than twenty 
years ago. The blessing of God has been upon their 
labors in a remarkable degree. They have pros- 
pered, for the time they have been at work, beyond 
what is usual in other Missions. So far as we have 
had the opportunity of judging, the missionaries are 
men full of energy, and greatly devoted to their 
work. There is an Annual Conference organized, 
with four Presiding Elders' Districts. There are 
numerous schools, and a Theological Seminary. A 
number of native preachers have been raised up, 
some of whom would be a credit to the Church any- 
where. Two thousand members^ and more, count- 
ing probationers, have been gathered, and brought 
to a good state of discipline, while the increase goes 
on at a very encouraging rate. 

I am inclined to think that the success of this work 
is largely due to the pozuer of preachi7ig. One diffi-. 
culty in the work of Missions — so it has struck me — 
is found in the fact that the missionary, beginning to 
preach in a new language which he does not use with 
facility, finds it difficult to get into the spirit of his 
theme, and, by the time he has got to feel at home 
in the language, he has fallen into a hum-drum habit 
that. has little of real hortatory power in it. From 
several circumstance^ I ^rn led to believe the Ameri- 
can Methodists have risen to a better standard of 
extemporaneous freedon^ and fervor than is common 
here, Thii is no less essential In preaching to the 
|)^at]iet^ than |o ihe unconverted at home, Jbf 



LUCKNOW AND CAWNPoRfi. 24J 

lieathen are not converted by arguments, but by the 
" testimony of Jesus." The power of the witness is 
the condition of success with the missionary. See 
Acts i : 8. It is not logic that conquers hearts ; it is 
Christ. The voice of the earnest witness of Christ 
is more potent with the common run of men than all 
the dialectics of the world, from Aristotle to Bledsoe. 
The work of the Rev. Wm. Taylor, in India, is a 
striking illustration of this. At the beginning of this 
decade he began a series of special labors among the 
English-speaking people of the cities, especially in 
the central and southern part of the country. Relig- 
ion was confessedly at a low ebb. The Churches 
were eminently formal and lifeless. But few of the 
Europeans were religious even in a formal way» 
Many of them were shamelessly wicked. The Eura- 
sians, sometimes called Indo-Europeans, were, as a 
class, dissolute even to recklessness. Like the mulat- 
toes of America, they had their origin in sin, most of 
them, though the great majority now have their 
existence through one or two, or more, generations 
of lawful marriage. They are despised and hated by 
the Hindoos, and have been in former times, and, to 
a considerable extent still are, by the English. Both 
among the English and the Eurasians the preaching 
of Taylor produced a wonderful effect. Widespread 
revivals prevailed in Bombay, Calcutta, and many 
other places. The converts were not willing to go 
into the formal Churches accessible to them. In 
Bombay they petitioned Mr. Taylor, in a formal 
way, to organize a Church. Many derided the work 
as mere excitement, which would soon die out. But, 
after five years, it has borne the test. Backslidings 



244 LUCKNOW AND CAWNPORE. 

have been remarkably few, while the Churches show 
an unusual per cent, of men and women actively 
engaged in the work of Christ. The spiritual aroma 
of their public assemblies is like odors wafted from 
the garden of God. It is the richest perfume we 
have inhaled anywhere in the Orient, except in the 
Conference and love-feast at Shanghai. 

Out of this work a separate Annual Conference 
has been organized — the South India Conference. 
It is a self-sustaining Conference, receiving no aid 
from the Missionary Board. Every circuit supports 
its own preachers, and undertakes to go into the 
regions accessible, in missionary labors among the 
heathen, besides. So far the experiment is wonder- 
fully satisfactory. The Churches are remarkably 
liberal in supporting their pastors, and are beginning 
to build good churches and parsonages, thus anchor- 
ing themselves in the country by real estate titles. 
This will be found to constitute an epoch in the his- 
tory of the Church in India. 



CHAPTER XX. 

SHAHJEHANABAD, AKBARABAD, ALLAHABAD. 

WHAT IS THAT, Ramsan?" Ramsan was 
the name of the guide we employed the twG 
days we were at Dehh. ''What is that?" 
"That is a tomb, sir?" ''And those on the right, 
all those? what are they, Ramsan?" "Tombs, sir." 
"On the left, here; what are these?" "Tombs, sir." 
"Far out there, on the edge of the horizon, what are 
those?" " Tombs, sir." 

We were on our way from the city of Dehli to the 
great tower, named the Kootub, eleven miles distant, 
and were driving through a space which had been 
occupied in past ages by the old city of Dilli or 
Delli, which shifted its site several times. Nothing 
now remains but old bricks, lying, some buried and 
some exposed, and — To7nbs ! These mausoleums are 
of various sizes, mostly very large buildings, and all 
surmounted with oval domes. Some are much dilap- 
idated, others still quite well preserved. They are of 
various ages, but none of them, probably, dating from 
any very great antiquity. But there they stand, wit- 
nessing the greatness of old kings and conquerors, 
and the triumph of death over all. He is the one 
imperial majesty whose conquests will never slacken 
until the time of his sudden and final overthrow by 
the "Blessed and only Potentate." When he shall 



246 TWO DAYS IN bEHLi. 

"abolish death " he will leave neither ruins nor tombs 
to commemorate the long reign of the destroyer. In 
the "new heavens and the new earth" there shall be 
"no more death," nor any memorial of his fallen 
power. 

The Mogul Empire seems not to have had a fixed 
and permanent capital, but the cities of Agra and 
Dehli enjoyed that distinction alternately, and per- 
haps other places were for a time the seats of power. 

Agra was named Akbarabad, from the great 
Akbar, who built its fort and enriched it with mag- 
nificent palaces and mosques. 

The present Dehli is a modern city, and was built 
by the grandson of Akbar, Shah Jehan, and named 
for himself, Shahjehanabad. The old name was Dilli 
or Delli, and this has superseded the clumsy Shah- 
jehanabad, but the affectation of modern literateurs 
has changed the orthography to Dehli, sometimes 
Delhi ; but the uniform pronunciation is Da-le, or 
Delle. The h is never sounded. The English spell- 
ing of Oriental words and names is arbitrary and 
capricious in the extreme. 

This Emperor, Shah Jehan, had a passion for 
building, and had, also, the resources to gratify his 
taste. Akbar had bequeathed a vast empire to his 
successors, and Shah Jehan enjoyed it after two 
generations of comparative peace had consolidated 
it and brought its revenues up to their highest point. 
It seemed to be his greatest ambition to build 
palaces, musjids (mosques), and tombs, on a larger 
and more magnificent scale than India had ever 
witnessed. This, indeed, was no small undertaking, 
for the tomb of Hoomayoon, near the site of old 



TWO DAYS IN DEHLI. 24/ 

Dehli, and that of Akbar, at Secundra, were among 
the most magnificent structures of any age or 
country — magnificent both in their dimensions and 
in the richness of the material used, as well as in the 
elaborate detail of exquisite finish. People here are 
fond of quoting from Bishop Heber, '' These Pagans 
designed like Titans and executed like jewelers." 

The great buildings erected by him at Dehli were 
''The Hall of Public Audience," ''The Hall of 
Private Audience," " The Bath House " of the 
harem, his own private apartments and bath-rooms, 
"The Pearl Mosque," and the " Jumma Musjid." 

The Hall of Public Audience is a roof resting on 
red sandstone columns and arches of a peculiar 
character, forming an open court, on one side of 
which — the only side which has a wall — was the 
throne, which is ten or twelve feet above the pave- 
ment. Below and in front of the throne was the 
seat of the ministers of State. From this throne the 
Emperor heard causes and administered justice. By 
a flight of solid stone steps in the wall we ascended 
to this old seat of Imperial magnificence, and looked 
out into the hall where men came to get justice at 
the hands of the Mogul. The hall is imposing from 
the number and height of its stone columns, and the 
scene must have been impressive when the extended 
area w^as crowded, as no doubt it often was, by men 
in Oriental costume, and graced by the flash and 
glitter of imperial insignia. 

Back of this, sheltered from all vulgar approach, 
on the bank of the river Jurnna, a confluent of the 
Ganges, on which the <:ity is built, is the Hall of 
l^r.iy^te Andierice, This? too, is an open court, a roof 



248 



TWO DAYS IN DEHLI. 



on columns. The area is not so great as that of the 
Hall of Public Audience, nor the pillars so high ; but 
in every other respect it surpasses it — beyond com- 
parison, I was going to say. Pavement, columns, 
arches, are all of the finest marble — pure white. On 
portions of it there are chiseled, in relief, and by 
skillful artists, figures of foliage and flowers in suffi- 
cient, but not to© great, profusion. In other parts 
there are flowers inlaid with colored stone — very 
beautiful. The ceiling was once covered all over 
with heavy filigree work of gold and silver, but this 
has been removed by vandal and greedy conquer- 
ors. The general proportions of the structure are 
such as to give it an air of great elegance. It is 
flanked on two sides by structures as elegant as 
itself, and on the south it overlooks the river. . 

How well the Emperor was satisfied v/ith the work 
of the artist may be inferred from an inscription he 
caused to be carved in solid marble just above the. 
arches on the eastern end, in the Persian character, 
*' If there be a paradise on earth it is this.'* 

To the west, and only a few paces distant, are 
the private apartments and bath-room of the 
Emperor. It, too, is of v/hite marble, not an open 
court, though very airy and well ventilated. The 
side next the hall is of marble screen-work — that is, 
thin marble slabs are cut through and through with 
openings of various though uniform pattern, giving 
the whole a light and very artistic aspect. A small 
door opens through the screen-work, through which 
the Emperor emerged when he went out to give 
audience. Over this door, chiseled in the marble, in 
full but not very high relief, is the figure of Justice, 



TWO DAYS IN DEHLl. 249 

holding the balances, on a background which I sup- 
pose was meant to represent the heavens. It is in 
the traditions of the Mussulmans here — so Ramsan, 
who is himself a Mohammedan, told us — that the 
great Mogul used to pause and contemplate this 
figure with solemnity before he went out to an 
audience, reminding himself of the justice that is in 
those heavens, to which even the greatest monarchs 
are equally amenable with the lowliest men. The 
pavement in this building is of marble. The build- 
ing is not large. The central room is the bath. 
The center of the room is occupied by a vat sunk 
from the level of the floor to a depth of about three 
feet, and lined first with water-proof cement, and 
then inside of that with marble. This was filled at 
pleasure from a fountain, and then emptied with equal 
facility. On the side toward the river is a projecting 
room like a bay window, which, it is said, was the 
bed-chamber. The whole structure is only one story 
high. This, it will be remembered, is on the west 
side of the Hall of Private Audience, and removed 
from it a few paces. 

East of the Hall, and at a somewhat greater dis- 
tance from it, is the bath-house of the harem. It is 
of white marble, plain but elegant. North of this 
bath, and adjoi-ning it, is the inclosure of the Pearl 
Mosque. The outside walls are of red sandstone, 
but the interior is of pure white marble. It is small, 
being designed only for imperial use ; but the plan is 
perfect, the material of the finest, and the finish 
exquisite. Pillars, arches, and groined ceiling, all 
of solid marble, are set off by inlaid flowers of pre- 
cious stones of varied colors. The ornamentation is 



250 TWO DAYS IN DEHLl, 

elaborate, but not overdone. Surely a Mogul might 
worship in such a place with a sense of imperial piety, 
relieved of every suspicion that he was before God 
only a common mortal. 

Another building in Dehli, some distance from 
these, remains a monument of the architectural taste 
and munificence of Shah Jehan. It is the Jumma 
Musjid. It stands on the west side of a large quad- 
rangular pavement. This pavement is itself elevated, 
I should think, some fifteen or twenty feet above the 
level of the ground. You ascend to it by flights of 
stone steps from the east, south, and north sides. 
At the top of the steps, on each side, is a massive 
gate. Near the south-east and north-east corners 
are sun-dials on low stone pillars, cut on the top of 
the pillar. The pavement or terrace is completely 
surrounded by the mosque itself standing on the 
west side, and a colonnade of red sandstone on the 
other three sides. In the center is a tank filled v/ith 
stagnant water where the worshipers can perform 
their ablutions. At the north-east corner of the ter- 
race is a little room with a strong box in it which 
contains some sacred relics — among others a sandal 
worn by Mohammed and a hair of his beard. An 
accommodating mullah will show you these sacred 
treasures for a small fee. I saw them with a party 
of three for two annas — two cents — apiece. It is a 
pity, if such holy things are to be made merchandise 
of, that they should not command a better price. 
There are also manuscript copies of the Koran in 
the handwriting of a grandson of the prophet. The 
sight of that was included in the fee. 

The Musjid (Mosque) itself is a stupendous build- 



TWO DAYS IN DEHLI. 25 I 

ing, 201 feet by 120, surmounted by three cupolas of 
white marble which are also themselves crowned 
with cuhces of copper richly gilt. The front is open, 
the roof being supported by massive columns. The 
other three sides are walls. This is the general style 
of mosques in this part of India. The work on this 
is very beautiful, much of it being faced with white 
marble, and, like all the buildings of this monarch, 
the architectural proportions are perfect. I say per- 
fect, for I can find no fault with them. Let it be un- 
derstood, though, that I do not pretend to be a com- 
petent critic in such matters ; while one of them, at 
least, has been severely criticised. But the archi- 
tects he employed were certainly men of rare genius. 
The inevitable two minarets are here, from the lofty 
summits of which, in the good old Mogul times, the 
shrill voice of the Muezzin used to call the faithful 
to prayer. They are 130 feet high, and give a fine 
view of the city and surrounding country. We saw 
the Kootub Minar, eleven miles distant, distinctly. 

We reserved the Kootub Minar for the next day. 
An early drive took us past the Junter Munter, or 
Observatory — a building in which a scientific man 
would take an interest, I suppose — and Shufter 
Jung's Mausoleum, a magnificent edifice which I will 
not take time to describe. Two miles to the left the 
great dome of Hoomagoon's tomb dominated the 
whole landscape. I may as well pause to- say that 
this, one of the greatest of the mausoleums of India, 
is, to my eye, one of the most perfect as a work of 
art. It was built by Haji Begum, the widow of the 
Emperor whose tomb it contains. The most re- 
nowned of Indian archaeologists. Gen. Cunningham, 



252 TWO DAYS IN DEHLI. 

says, "It is the earliest specimen of the architecture 
of the Mogul dynasty." It is easy to see that, if this 
is the case, it furnished the model for what followed. 
The general plan of the world-renowned Taj Mahal, 
at Agra, is the same, with differences of detail. In 
the language of Cunningham : " The exterior form of 
the main body of the tomb is a square with the cor- 
ners cut off, or an octagon with four long and four 
short faces, and each of the short faces forms one 
side of the four octagonal-corner towers. The dome 
is built entirely of white marble, the rest of the build- 
ing being of red sandstone, with inlaid ornaments of 
white marble. An innovation in this building is the 
narrow-necked dome." 

The building is elevated upon two terraces which 
raise it to a very commanding eminence. The upper 
terrace was surrounded by screen-work of cut stone ; 
but the greater part of this has disappeared. The 
lower terrace is but three feet high, while the upper 
rises above this on arches twenty feet. Through the 
arches are passages into the interior, which is filled 
with smaller tombs of various members of his family. 
My guide-book is kind enough to inform me that this 
tomb has not the beauty of that of Shufter Jung, 
but I must ask the guide-book's pardon for once. 

But I cannot pause. The great Kootub Minar 
calls me, and I am not to get breakfast until I have 
climbed *to the top of it — no slight job. The road 
lies through the wilderness of tombs to which the 
reader was introduced at the outset of this chapter. 
For let it be remembered that Dehli was a seat of 
royalty before ever Mogul or Mussulman had 
appeared. The old Hindoo kings reigned here until 



TWO DAYS IN DEHLI. 253 

the twelfth century. Then came the Mohammedan 
conquest; then four centuries later came the Moguls, 
and they, too, were Mohammedans. Some of the 
oldest of these funereal structures are supposed to 
antedate the Mussulman era. I can well believe it. 
They are the monuments of dead empires as well as 
dead men. In the gloaming, one might fancy them 
all full of ghosts. The dark discoloration produced 
by this climate on all stones except polished marble 
gives them a somber aspect, as if they were in 
mourning for the lost glory they commemorate. 
But the air is fresh, and we whirl along among them 
at a rapid pace. 

Arrived at the neighborhood of the Kootub, we 
left our carriage at the Dak Bungalow, and visited 
some rude old buildings which I will not undertake 
to describe. We also saw a celebrated well, very 
large, and of an oblong square figure. At the 
mouth it must be fifty feet by fifteen. The side-walls 
and the south-end wall are perpendicular, but that at 
the north end descends by terraces to the water's 
edges thirty-five feet. No sooner did we appear at the 
north end than a man leaped from the perpendicular 
wall at the other end — a sheer descent of thirty-five 
feet. At first he drew up his legs and went whizzing 
down ; but as he came near the surface of the water 
he brought his feet together, stretched his legs 
straight, and disappeared. He was soon up again, 
and climbing the terraced wall toward us. Five 
men and boys made this plunge in two or three 
minutes, and then clamored for ** backsheesh." 

All minor objects exhausted, including a wonder- 



254 TWO DAYS IN DEHLI. 

ful iron pillar, with a wonderful heathen legend, let 
us now proceed to our great Minar. 

The Kootub Minar is said to be the highest column, 
standing by itself, in all the world, being two hun- 
dred and thirty-eight feet one inch above the level 
of the ground. The diameter of the house is forty- 
seven feet two inches. It is six stories high, and 
fluted in the lower stories. In some stories the flutes 
are all circular, in some all angular, and in one they 
are alternately circular and angular. The column is 
just five diameters in height. The circumference of 
the base is equal to the sum of the diameter of the 
six stories. A circular interior flight of stairs ascends 
to the top. 

There is some doubt as to the history of this singu- 
lar structure, but, from inscriptions on it, it seems to 
have been built by Mussulman sovereigns in the thir- 
teenth century, and probably for religious purposes, 
partly, and partly for a mausoleum. It bears the 
ninety-nine Arabic names of the Almighty, and also 
eulogistic inscriptions to two or three Sultans, with 
unpronounceable and outlandish names with which I 
will not deface my paper. 

At any rate, I must stand on the summit before I 
can touch my breakfast, and the Dak Bungalow 
begins to be a very desirable place. There are 
choice mutton chops there, and the sweetest and 
crispest of sliced breakfast bacon, fried, and such 
luscious eggs, and coffee that would tempt an old 
Mogul in his tomb if he could but sniff it. But not a 
morsel can I touch till I go up — up there — and then 
come down again. Well, here goes — up, up, up, up, 
up. Here we are at last, pufling and perspiring, with 



TWO DAYS IN DEHLI. 255 

all the world at our feet. Alas ! the atmosphere is 
heavy, and we can see nothing at a distance. But 
in the near view we have in full sight the following 
" familiar " objects — as per guide-book — to wit : The 
Unfinished Minar, Adam Khan's Tomb, The Iro-n 
Pillar, The Fort of'Lalkot, The Fort of Rajah Pith-' 
era, Haji Baba Rose Beh's Tomb, Tomb of Moulvie 
Joomalie Koomalie, Musjid of Feezool-oola or Jellal 
Khan, Metcalf House, which was o:?ice the tomb of 
Mahomed Koolee Khan, The diving-wells in Meh- 
rowlie. Ruins below Metcalf House, Royal Tombs 
in Mehrowlie, etc. 

There now — I must have my breakfast after that ! 
Thanks for a choice meal and a sharp-set palate. 

But leaving Dehli, I must hasten on to Agra, 
This city was the chief seat of the illustrious Akbar, 
and from him called Akbarabad. The fort at this 
place is the best we have seen, the walls being very 
massive, very high, and crowned with crinolated 
battlements. Akbar built a very large palace here, 
which is still standing and in a fair state of preserva- 
tion. I cannot undertake to describe it. It has one 
front on the Jumna, and covers a large area. The 
inevitable marble filigree work is seen here — broken 
at one place by a cannon-ball. In the basement is a 
very labyrinth of columns and wall where, it is said, 
the women of the imperial household were accus- 
tomed to play at hide-and-seek. In a small court 
above there is a pavement of marble, in squares, on 
which the tradition has it, the Mogul used to play 
chess, or some such game, right royally, having for 
his *' chess-men " the beautiful girls of his harem, 
who moved from square to square as they were 



2^6 TWO DAYS m DEMLl. 

directed. A tank, stocked with fish, was in a larger 
court, and the gallery from which Akbar used to 
drop his hook was pointed out to us. The throne- 
room was an open court, and the throne, still pre- 
served, is a slab of black marble. In this slab there 
are two points of a decided red cdlor from which a 
slight red tint shades off for several inches. Our 
guide told us of this throne before we saw it, and 
assured us that it had shed blood twice ; once when 
the Mahratta invader, the Rajah of Bhurtpore, sat on 
it, and again when Lord Ellenboro, a Governor-Gen- 
eral of India, did the same. When we expressed 
our disbelief of the fact he took us to the place and 
proved it triumphantly by showing us the very blood- 
stain, indelible in the rock ; and proof incontroverti- 
ble that it did bleed, and ^ka^ when those very two 
men sat on it. But use has rendered it insensible to 
humiliation, for when I seated myself on it it did not 
even so much as give a grunt. 

The description of the bath-room of the harem I 
give in the language of Bayard Taylor : " The most 
curious part of the palace is the Shish Mahal, or 
Palace of Glass, which is an oriental bath, the cham- 
bers and passages whereof are adorned with thou- 
sands of small mirrors, disposed in the most intricate 
designs. The water fell, in a broad sheet, into a 
marble pool over brilliant lamps, and the fountains 
are so constructed as to be lighted from within. 
Mimic cascades tumbled from the walls over slabs of 
veined marble into basins so curiously carved that 
the motion of the water produced the appearance of 
fish. This bath must once have realized all the 
fabled splendors of Arabian history. The chambers 



TWO DAYS IN DEHLi. '^f 

of the Sultans and the open court connecting them 
are filled with fountains." 

Akbar's mausoleum is eight miles from the city. 
It was built by his son, and proudly named Se- 
cundra — Alexandria — for was not Akbar another 
Alexander ? It is a massive structure, imposing in 
the distant view, but near at hand the front eleva- 
tion, a sort of portico of only one story, projects so 
as to conceal the really lofty summit, and give the 
pile a squat appearance. The sarcophagi are usually 
under the dome of these buildings, but this one is 
singular from almost all others in having no dome, 
the sarcophagus resting on a marble pavement on 
the summit, having the heavens for its dome. It is 
covered by cloth heavily ornamented with gold 
thread. The pavement I should take to be twenty- 
five feet square. It is surrounded on all sides by the 
open screen-work of marble of which I have fre- 
quently spoken. There are eleven panels of this 
work on each side, forty-four in all, and the pattern 
of each panel is diverse from that of any other. 

Here at Secundra the English Church Mission has 
a printing-press and Orphanage, The Orphanage is 
supplied with inmates mainly by foundlings exposed 
to perish, from which fate they are saved by the 
police and brought to this Christian refuge. There 
is indubitable proof that infanticide is still practiced 
in many parts of the country, notwithstanding all the 
efforts of the English authorities to suppress it. The 
victims are always girls. They are sometimes killed 
outright, and sometimes left in the open fields to die. 
This is the religion that some "large-minded" 
Englishmen are fain to patronize as being about as 



^5^ TWO DAYS m DEMLl. 

good as Christianity. Hundreds of times in this tour 
have I been overwhelmed with emotions of gratitude 
that I and my children were born Christians. May a 
merciful God pardon any want of ardor I may have 
been guilty of in pressing the conquests of the cross. 

Returning to Agra we may visit two celebrated 
mosques. But they are much like the one at Dehli, 
already described. 

Several hundred Mussulmans were assembled, and 
scattered about over the vast marble-paved terrace 
of one, when- we visited it, near the hour of prayer. 
When the moment arrived, the mullah, or priest, 
came out and ordered them into line, facing the 
mosque, and facing toward Mecca, as well. We 
were obliged to stand outside of the terrace, so that 
our view was a distant one, and we could not see 
well how matters proceeded. But we heard a sort of 
chant, which, I suppose, was the recitation of a prayer. 
The whole affair lasted only a minute or two. The 
worshipers were scarely well placed in line till they 
dispersed. Many of them crowded about us, when 
we took the opportunity to ask them several ques- 
tions about their worship, which one or two, who 
spoke English imperfectly, answered cheerfully — I 
thought, indeed, rather eagerly. The dome of one 
of these mosques, flanked with graceful kiosks, is so 
lofty as to command a very extended landscape. 
Like so many of the larger domes, it is of white mar- 
ble. Taylor imagined that when seen from a dis- 
tance, it looked like a silver bubble, ready to be 
brushed away at any moment — or something of that 
sort — which I suppose is very poetical, and which 
has the additional merit of being all poetry. 



TWO DAYS IN DEHU. 259 

But the gem of Mogul architecture is the Taj. 
Mumtaz Muhul, or Moomtaz Bibi, was the favorite 
wife of Shah Jehan, the builder of the most famous 
buildings of Dehli, already mentioned. Mumtaz 
Bibi was contracted, in domestic colloquy, to Taz 
Bibi, or Taj Bibi — a very sweet pet name. She died 
early, and the bereaved monarch erected this most 
splendid of Indian mausoleums to her memory. It 
stands on the banks of the Jumna, a mile below the 
city of Agra. Why it was not placed at Dehli I 
know not. 

In visiting it you enter first a court, and there, 
leaving your gharry, enter the grounds from the 
south by a massive and very high gate of red sand- 
stone. It must be fifty feet high, and is ornamented 
with elaborate carvings. Having passed this portal 
you have the Taj in full view through an avenue of 
trees. Along this avenue you pass through the 
park, on the side of which it stands. The grounds 
are beautifully laid off and filled with trees and 
shrubbery, being kept up at a great expense by the 
Government. The avenue is a paved way from the 
gate to the terrace on which the building stands — 
that is, it is paved on the sides, the center being 
sunk some three feet to contain water, playing in it 
originally from fountains. At the end of the avenue 
you mount a terrace by a few stone steps, and a few 
steps farther on, another terrace, which rises per- 
haps twenty feet above the first. This terrace is one 
hundred yards square, and is paved with white mar- 
ble, polished so that the glare of the hot sun upon it 
is blinding. From the center of this elevated pave- 
ment rises the wonderful building. The main body 



260 TWO DAYS IN DEHLI. 

is an irregular octagon, having four long and four 
short sides, which are broken up by entrances and 
recesses. It is surmounted in the center by a very 
lofty dome of the most graceful pattern I ever saw. 
Each of the short sides is surmounted by a smaller 
dome. Between the central and exterior domes is a 
circle of most elegant kiosks. 

On entering the building you find one principal 
apartment under the central dome having an unob- 
structed' elevation from the pavement to the top of 
the dome of, say 200 feet. This apartment is a per- 
fect circle. At each corner, outside of this, there are 
smaller rooms. 

Now you are to remember that inside and outside 
this great structure, 186 feet in diameter and 243 feet 
high, is of the finest and whitest marble, polished to 
the utmost. On the inner wall of the great circular 
room under the dome, for about three feet above the 
pavement, there are flowers and foliage elegantly 
carved in relief. Above that the wall is covered 
partly by flowers inlaid with precious stones of 
divers colors. What an amount of delicate work ! 
It is positively inconceivable. Other parts of the 
wall, inside and out, are occupied with texts of the 
Koran, inlaid in the white marble with black 
marble, elegantly cut in the Persian character, and 
fitting so nicely that the closest inspection scarcely 
shows the joint. It is affirmed that the entire Koran 
is here transcribed, but this is doubted. 

The real sarcophagus is in a basement room in the 
center, but the ornamental one on the paved floor 
under the dome. It is richly inlaid with mosaic 
work in flowers of precious stones, and is surrounded 



TWO DAYS IN DEHLI. 261 

by marble screen-work of the finest kind. The 
ninety-nine names of God are inlaid in black marble. 
The Emperor lies by her side, but his sarcophagus 
seems an intrusion, as the place was evidently pre- 
pared for only one. He was to have had a mauso- 
leum on the opposite side of the river, just like this, 
the decaying foundations of which still remain. It 
was. to be joined to this by a marble bridge. But 
intestine feuds disturbed the close of his Hfe and 
shortened his reign, so that his design was frustra- 
ted, and he sleeps here by the side of his beloved 
Taz. 

There be those who say that the architecture of 
this building is faulty. May be so, but I cannot see 
it. It is one of a very few buildings I have seen 
that gives me a feeling of complete satisfaction. I 
do not understand the principles of architectural art 
sufficiently to account for my taste, but, to my taste, 
the Taj is wondrousiy beautiful. 

I never became enthusiastic about any of these 
old buildings till I saw this. I think the Capitol at 
Washington more beautiful than any of the others, 
but to the Taj I surrendered. To be sure, I was 
pleased in a quiet way at Dehli, and especially when 
I saw the Kootub from the top of the minaret, eleven 
miles away, clear cut against the sky, the tapering 
shaft being the only object to break the dead circle 
of the horizon; and yet more when I came near it 
and saw it springing from its massive plinth in just 
proportion of diameter and height, challenging the 
very clouds with its summit. But the beautiful 
never took absolute possession of me till I came here. 

The echo in the dome of the Taj has been pro- 



262 TWO DAYS IN DEHLI. 

nounced by traveled men the best in the world. We 
tried it. A sharp, short shout rebounds from fifty 
points at once, and touches and bounds off again, 
and turns somersaults, splits itself into fragments and 
shreds, and careers around, reverberating and 
answering itself as if it were intoxicated with the 
beauty of the place, dying out at last so reluctantly 
and slov/ly that it is impossible to say v/hen you 
cease to hear it. H. made it resound with the name 
of our Lord, and we sung the Doxology together 
with a loud voice and full hearts. 

Men 20,000, years 22 — these factors give the sum 
of labor crystallized here. 

At Allahabad, at sunrise, Sunday morning, we 
were met by the Rev, Mr. Osborne, pastor of the M. 
E. Church, and taken to his house. How did he know 
we were coming? Perhaps Dr. Waugh wrote him; 
I know not. What a sweet atmosphere of Christian 
hospitality we breathed under his roof! and what a 
hallowed service of the holy supper we had with his 
Church ! He is an Indo-European by birth, an 
intelligent gentleman by instinct and culture, and, 
by grace, a devoted and efficient Christian pastor. 
One of the most interesting sights we have had was 
his daughter, twelve years old, in charge of a native 
Sunday-school, and managing it to admiration. I 
involuntarily invoked God's blessing on the child and 
her work. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

ODDS AND ENDS. 

y/HE EAST INDIAN lives three thousand yeafs 
I ago. Imperfect hints ofantiquity are found in the 
ruins of his old cities, and in a few remaining 
obeHsks, but he^ the present living Hindoo, is antiq- 
uity itself. His domicile, his dress, his social life, his 
manners, his religion, his implements, mechanical and 
agricultural, his cart and oxen, his donkey, his elephant 
and camel, and the uses of them, belong to the period 
of the very dawn of history — doubtless even to a time 
of which history makes no note. When an American 
reads of Buddha washing his own garment in the tank 
or river, it sounds very odd to him. He is apt to sup- 
pose that the celebrated teacher was very abject, or 
a great ascetic. But here where he lived the incident 
is not noted. Nothing is more common or common- 
place. Men of all classes walk down into the water 
and wash their own loose and scant clothing while 
they take their bath. One soon becomes so accus- 
tomed to see men, almost nude, engaged in this 
way that he thinks nothing of it. 

One of the first things I observed in Calcutta was 
the rude ox-carts. With the exception of the tire, 
every part might have been made with an ax and 
saw. The hub is of great size, and the rough-hewn 
spokes, very large, are set in at great intervals, the 



264 ODDS AND ENDS. 

felloe, also, being very clumsy. TKe body or bed is 
of bamboo poles, rudely fastened together, tapering 
toward the forward end, which extends up between 
the oxen well on toward the yoke. Indeed, the 
outer poles of the frame often come together at the 
end, and serve as the tongue to which the yoke is 
fastened. You will often, therefore, see one ox on 
each side of the load, or at least, of the front part of 
it, instead of being entirely in advance of it, as with 
us. I have never seen the horse or mule used for 
draft here, that is, for heavy draft. About the cities 
carriages are drawn by horses, but my conviction is 
that this use of them was introduced.*by Europeans, 
though many wealthy natives have taken it up. Yet, 
even to this day, many of the latter use oxen in their 
carriages. There is a tradition of the Emperor 
Hoomayoon taking out his favorite Begum in a car- 
riage drawn by beautiful white oxen, himself acting 
as teamster. Indeed, these India oxen make much 
better carriage-horses than our American breeds 
would. They are more sprightly, and, I think, bet- 
ter disposed, and more easily guided. They look 
brighter, and, when kept for the carriage, they are 
fed high and curried until they are sleek, and show 
their keeping like a horse. 

There is a hole made in the cartilage between the 
nostrils of the ox, through which a rope is drawn and 
then brought over the head like the headstall of a 
bridle. To this a rein is attached, by means of which 
he is guided like a horse. This is certainly an excel- 
lent contrivance, putting the brute very fully in the 
power of his driver. I have seen very fine pleasure 
carriages of wealthy natives drawn by oxen. 



ODDS AND ENDS. 26$ 

The water-buffalo is sometimes also used for heavy 
draft. He is yoked as the ox is. This ugly beast 
we have found everywhere since we landed at Shang- 
hai. The only other animal I have seen used for 
this purpose is the camel. I was quite unprepared 
for this, having supposed that his only use was as a 
beast of burden. The camel-wagons I saw were very 
rough-looking things, most of them on low wheels, 
the bed being two stories high, with cargo on the 
first floor, and passengers up stairs. There was a 
certain ugly congruity between the vehicle and the 
team — they seemed all of a piece. 

Of all dumb brutes I have ever seen the camel is 
the most unshapely. With his long hind-legs, barely 
tacked on to his body ; the hump on his back like a 
hideous deformity ; his little, long, round neck, tak- 
ing a start downward and then turning up as if drawn 
by a convulsion ; the two straight fore-legs set under 
the chest like stilts ; he stands before you in an 
apologetic attitude, as if he were asking pardon of 
the universe for having been obtruded upon it. Add 
to this the miserable head set on the upturned end of 
the neck, with the facial line, from the ear to the 
unhappy-looking nostrils, level with the horizon, look- 
ing like a statue of misery — a mute, perpetual appeal 
for pity, and you have the Ideal of the Ugly stand- 
ing before you eight feet high. 

To return to wheeled vehicles. There is no want 
of variety. In some parts of the country the cart has 
only a truck-wheel, sawed off from the end of a log, 
a hole being made through the centre for the axle. 
Such were sometimes used in Missouri in the early 
gettlement pf the country, I came near losing my 



266 ODDS AND ENDS. 

life when a boy by being run over by one. It 
flattened me out well. Then, all over the country, 
we saw a jaunty-looking little vehicle on two wheels, 
with a body of bamboo, the outer poles of the lower 
part of the body extending forward fof shafts. The 
seat is built up over the axle. It is usually drawn by 
a pony, but a similar one is often drawn by a pair of 
very small oxen. I have seen four or five men 
crowded on one, though it seems to be intended for 
only two. I should think at the price of labor in this 
country one of the very common ones might be made 
for five dollars, though they are sometimes made 
quite elegant. 

There is a great disposition to set off a team with 
cheap ornaments, or, in the case of the wealthy, with 
very costly ones. There is often a bunch of minute 
bells suspended from the tip of the horns. I have 
seen the horns painted, and, by the way, the horns of 
cattle here are of a type altogether different from 
those of Europe and America. They are all of one 
type, but the range of varieties is free, and the num- 
ber countless. I wish I had photographs of all I 
have seen. 

I once supposed that Texas led the world in the 
art of branding cattle, but I have reluctantly to give 
it up. My Texas pride in this particular all perished 
out of me when I reached India. I have seen cattle 
here literally scarred — striped and checked — from 
end to end. I believe it was worse at Singapore, 
perhaps, than anywhere else — though not much. 

It is gratifying to find much of the hardest work 
done by men in China laid upon dumb brutess here. 
In the part of China visited by us there jar© no 



6dds and ends. 26/ 

wheeled vehicles for heavy draft. Whatever the 
farmer takes to market goes on his shoulders, either 
to the market or to the canal, when it is sent to a 
remote market. This is often a distance of several 
miles. In India all heavy transportation is effected 
by carts or on pack-animals. In the cities of 
China, on the narrow streets, you are perpetually 
jostled by men from whose brows the perspiration is 
rolling, the temples traversed by swollen veins, while 
they utter a peculiar and distressing grunt at every 
step. So in the country, it is no unusual thing to 
see men trotting along the narrow paths between the 
fields loaded with cruel burdens. 

The pack-animals used in India are oxen, buffalo, 
camels, donkeys, and sometimes, but not often, 
mules. The ox and buffilo bear enormous burdens. 
Nearly all the donkeys we saw used in this way are 
of a very small species — so small that they may be 
called dwarfs. I gave it as my opinion that some of 
them were not over two and a half feet from hoof to 
withers. That I might be able to- speak with author- 
ity, I asked H. to measure one with the tape-line he 
has always in his vest-pocket. From the ground up 
he was exactly thirty inches. But what enormous 
loads they do carry, sometimes I think certainly 
much more than their own weight ! 

It is amusing to see an ox freighted with water, an 
enormous leather-sack, filled at the well, being sus- 
pended on either side. They are filled after they are 
placed here. Sometimes the street is sprinkled in 
this way in Bombay. The sack is arranged so that 
the neck of it points forward from the lower part. A 
man walks along on each side of the ox, holding the 



^6S Odds and ends. 

neck of the sack and slackening his grasp so as to let 
out a sufficient jet, while he flirts it about in a most 
vigorous way. An awkward contrivance, certainly, 
but yet it does its work very well. 

The only human pack-animals I have seen are 
women, and these seem to be employed chiefly for 
one particular sort of burden — the peculiar fuel of 
this country — which they carry in large baskets on 
their heads,. They and the little donkeys appear to 
have a monopoly in the transportation of this article, 
and some of them seern almost to vie with the don- 
keys as to the size of the load. 

I stated in a former chapter that the yield of 
cereals seemed to me to be light. I afterward saw 
some heavier crops, and there is this to be more 
distinctly stated, that there are tzvo crops a year. 
That which I have seen is the spring crop, which, I 
am told, is by far the lighter of the two. I have no 
doubt, upon large inquiry, that the annual average 
per acre is much above that of America, though the 
average of the spring crop would be below it. 

The gentleness of wild birds here will strike the 
new-comer. One of the first things I noticed on 
going ashore at Calcutta was crows in great numbers 
hopping about the streets. You see it everywhere. 
At Kandy, in Ceylon, two beautiful little birds were 
flying about the church, and hopping about on the 
exposed timbers overhead, chirruping as contentedly 
as if they were in the woods. I have repeatedly had 
them singing for me in dining-rooms at the hotels — 
not confined in a cage as in America, but coming and 
going at their own sweet will. It was delightful ! At 
Dehli a man came to our hotel and proposed to bring 



ODDS And ends. 269 

two thousand crows together in the street in front of 
the hotel in two minutes for a small fee. This he said 
he would do by mimicking the call of that bird. We 
were preoccupied at the moment, but I have since 
regretted that we did not do it, for we were assured 
by our guide that he could do all he professed. 

Many of the rich Rajahs have large numbers of 
elephants, but they are an expensive property. Two 
servants are employed to take care of each one. 
They are frequently washed, which operation we wit- 
nessed at Lucknow. They were taken into the river 
Jumna and made to lie down where the water was 
about three feet deep. The elephant relishes this 
much. He stretches out on his side, looking the 
picture of satisfaction, lazily thrusting the end of his 
trunk up out of the water now and then to take 
breath. Meanv/hile the coolies throw water over him 
copiously and scrub his ugly cuticle lustily with coarse 
pumice-stone. After a time his lordship rises grandly, 
the mahoot, with wonderful skill, fastening himself 
upon him and coming up on his back. Then he turns 
round and lies down on the other side, exposing the 
unscrubbed surface to the pumice-stone. 

The betel-nut is used all over India, but is never 
chewed by itself. A green leaf is wrapped around it, 
and tobacco is often added, sometimes with lime. 
Other nuts and berries, and perhaps gums, are some- 
times used with or without the tobacco, which, to a 
cultivated taste, improves it, but to others spoils it. 
Many Europeans relish it. I never tasted it, but my 
traveling companion tried a quid which Brother Mess- 
more, at Lucknow, prepared for him, without tobacco, 
and he pronounced it very pleasant. The constant 



^'JO ODDS AND ENDS. 

use of it discolors the teeth, and the juice makes the 
lips very red. People who use it eject saliva very 
copiously, and the women use it as freely as the men. 
It is an important article of local commerce. 

The Oriental well is an object of great interest. 
The wells are often very large and deep. One not 
unfrequently serves the whole community. Public 
parks and gardens are sometimes irrigated from them. 
The water is often drawn by hand with a bucket and 
rope ; but there is frequently a simple contrivance for 
drawing it from the larger wells by ox-power. It is 
much the same as I have seen at home for elevating 
brick and mortar in the erection of very high build- 
ings, where a horse is used, moving off in a straight 
line till the hod reaches its proper height, then return- 
ing and starting from the same point for another lift. 
So here the oxen move straight off from the well, 
drawing upon a rope which turns a wheel to which 
another rope from which the bucket is suspended is 
attached. The bucket in this case is a great leathern 
sack containing probably from twelve to twenty gal- 
lons. 

In other cases I have seen a drum-shaped wheel 
elevated on a frame above the well, having a broad 
leather belt passing around it and descending into 
the well, where, under the surface of the water, it 
passed around another wheel. To this belt small 
leather buckets are attached at short intervals. 
Coolies, seated on the frame above the well, turn the 
wheel by treading upon the ribs of it with their feet, 
and pulling at them with their hands. As it revolves, 
the buckets, passing below the water, come up full, 



ODDS AND ENDS. 2/1 

and, as they turn over the wheel above, empty them- 
selves into a receptacle prepared for the purpose. 

Castor-oil is expressed by the rudest possible pro- 
cess. I made inquiries of several gentlemen as to 
the process by which opium is prepared for com- 
merce, and got statements much at variance with 
each other. We passed through the country so 
rapidly, and had so many things to learn, that I did 
not take time to get* the truth from authentic 
sources. 

I am not certain whether I have mentioned the 
crowds of pilgrims we saw going to Ajoodiya to a 
mela. The entire rolling stock was put at their ser- 
vice on the railroad from Benares to Lucknow, both 
of freight and passenger-cars, for two weeks, and 
could not begin to accommodate them. This mela 
was a festival in honor of the god Rama. On a cer- 
tain day, at a certain hour, a plunge into the river at 
a certain point, made sacred by some act of the god, 
is efficacious for I know not what divine ends. On 
our return from Dehli we saw a paragraph in the 
newspapers stating that several hundreds of persons 
had been crushed to death at the great mela. It 
occurred on this wise : As the proper hour 
approached, the whole mass of people, amounting to 
hundreds of thousands, made a rush for the sacred 
bathing-place, which is reached by rather narrow 
approaches. The scene was one of wild excitement. 
Thousands of men, who had all their lives looked 
forward to this auspicious day, when, just at the 
moment when the god Will be present, they would 
plunge into thd feavlng waters, find themselves 
obstructed b>^ the srowd, and become frantic. The/ 



2/2 ODDS AND ENDS. 

came a hundred miles on foot to the railroad, and 
then fought their way into the cars (as I saw some of 
them do, the crowd being so great that not a fourth 
part of them could get in), then rode all night in a 
car jammed and wedged with human beings, having 
abandoned their business and spent all their little 
money just for this, that they might get the blessing 
of the great god Rama by observing the prescribed 
formula at the designated moment. So, in the nar- 
row approaches to the bathing-place, they trampled 
each other to death by the hundred. 

But it is not religious sentiment alone that causes 
the excitement. I visited a temple in Benares at a 
time of very excited worship, and was satisfied that 
the furore v/as as much a sort of social contagion in 
the crowd as any thing else — perhaps more. The 
social susceptibility of the Hindoos is very great, and 
a few enthusiastic men in a crowd will soon spread 
their own fervor, which will be augm.ented by the 
contact of masses of susceptible men with each 
other. From what I saw I could understand how, 
in a crowd of hundreds of thousands, screaming and 
shouting, and leaping, with a few half-crazy men 
raving among them with streaminghair and glaring 
eyes, the car of the god being drawn along in the 
midst of them by men, some nervous people, in the 
abandon of the hour, might actually throw them- 
selves under the advancing wheels, and be crushed 
to death, the act being prompte4 more by a conta- 
gion of frenzy than by any religious faith, 

We happened at Pelili at the time oi a religious 
festival. In the morning the men appeared with 
their persons, but especially their clothing, staiiied ia 



ODDS AND ENDS. 2/3 

Irregular patches, with some sort of red stuff. Some- 
times they stained themselves, sometimes threw the 
damp pigment on each other in a sportive way. I 
inquired as to the significance of this, but could get 
no answer except that it was a custom of the festival. 
I suppose it has, or had at first, some religious sig- 
nificance. In the afternoon the male population was 
on the streets, all in clean clothes, and with the 
utmost display of finery. We had heard that the 
merchants of Dehli were a prosperous class, and this 
'display went far to prove it. The display of fine 
horses, oxen, carriages, and equipages, quite amazed 
me. You rarely see finer or better-kept horses, or in 
greater numbers, on a gala-day in an American city. 
For gaudy caparison it far excelled any thing I ever 
saw. Saddles, bridles, martingales, harness, excelled, 
not perhaps in costliness, but certainly in gaudiness, 
any thing I had ever thought of in that line. The 
native full-dress, especially when seen in crowds, is 
very picturesque. There were rich men on horse- 
back, rich men in carriages drawn by oxen or horses, 
poor men in their carts, and all cla;sses on foot. The 
rich were radiant with jewels and gold brocade, both 
on their persons and equipage. The poorest had 
their tawdry, tinsel ornaments, on their persons, on 
their carts, and on the horns of their oxen. The 
principal streets were a moving mass of chatting, jab- 
bering, gay life. The market-place was a lively 
scene. All other business-places were closed, but 
here an active traffic was going on, mostly in cheap 
toys and ornaments. Men moved about with frames 
on which were displayed their stock in trade. You 
niight see a father purchasing a paper whirligig for 



274 ODDS AND ENDS. 

his little boy, and the little fellow twirling it and 
cackling with delight, while another clamored for a 
jumping-jack as if he felt that he would attain his 
ultimate destiny in the possession of that invaluable 
property. We drove slowly up and down the streets 
for, perhaps, an hour, and then out to the *' Queen's 
Garden." There the crowd was not less. Every- 
where there was a moving scene of social pleasure. 
We entered unconsciously into the genial glow of the 
occasion. From one of the most elegant carriages a 
fine-looking Hindoo bowed to us profoundly. We 
recognized him as a merchant at wdiose establish- 
ment some of our party had made purchases in the 
morning. We almost felt as if we were a part of the 
occasion. 

Every carriage had, besides the driver, a cooly 
trotting along near the horses' heads. Nearly every 
man on horseback was similarly attended, except 
the police, who were out in force, many being on 
horseback. 

But look into every carriage, every cart, every gay 
group on foot. Do you see a woman? Not one. If 
you see any cooly women stragghng about they are 
on some hard duty. The better class are all in the 
zenana. Woman here has no part in the social 
pleasures of her lord and master. In fact, she has no 
pleasures except such as she may be able to iinpro- 
vise in her monotonous life within the walls where 
the days linger into years, and the lagging years 
bring death at last. Are we still to be told that 
India has no need of the Christian civilization? 

After sunset- we retarned to our hotel,- leaving the 
erowd undimriTtii^hed on the street* It ought to be 



ODDS AND ENDS. 2^5 

added that there was no disorder, nothing boisterous 
on the streets. Whether this was due to native cus- 
toms or to the vigilance of the poHce, I do not 
know. 

There is an annual festival — the Holi, or Holee fes- 
tival — at which, we were informed, all sorts of 
excesses are indulged — drunkenness and the most 
degrading debauchery. This festival commemorates 
a romp the god Vishnu had with a company of milk- 
maids. The indecencies of it, we were told, are 
greatly restrained under British rule, but it is deplor- 
ably vicious. 

While at Bombay we were informed of the exist- 
ence of a Brahman sect at that place, though not con- 
fined to that place, called the Bhattias, who regard 
their priests, who are denominated Maharajahs as 
actual incarnations of Vishnu. The men of this sect feel 
honored when a Maharajah will condescend to take 
their wives or daughters for a night, and the Mahara- 
jahs often condescend. It is considered a great dis- 
tinction to have a divinely-descended child born in the 
family. 

I have stated this fact, knowing how impossible it 
will seem to readers whose consciences have been 
formed under Christian tuition. I beg leave to say 
that I state no fact of this class on slight testimony. 
In this instance there can be no question, as the facts 
were brought out indubitably, only a few years since, 
in a judicial investigation in Bombay. Those who 
understand the amazing credulity of the Hindoos in 
matters connected with their religion, the stupid greed- 
iness with which they swallow gnats and camels and 
sawmills with equal facility, will not be so greatly 



276 ODDS AND ENDS. 

astonished by a fact like this. Tlie Brahman's powers 
of deglutition, in any matter that concerns his gods, 
are infinite — simply infinite. 

The title of this chapter, *' Odds and Ends," 
will justify any violent incongruity of associa- 
tion in the topics introduced. But, indeed, there is 
no incongruity in bringing Brahmans and cattle 
together, as the Brahman holds cattle to be sacred, 
and will by no means be guilty of the profanity of 
eating beef. I was going to speak of the large herds 
of cattle to be seen in all parts of the country. 
What struck me was, that, in a country where all 
resources of food require to be husbanded with the 
utmost care for the sustentation of human life, the 
cattle should be found, not only so numerous, but 
so uniformly fat. The country seems picked clean, 
yet the cattle are sleek and round. This close hus- 
bandry of articles of food for man and beast is quite 
novel to an American. Ruth would starve to death 
immediately, with the range of a thousand fields, 
after these East India reapers. I doubt if there is a 
straw left in a hundred acres. The stubble I saw 
was not an inch high — the fact is, most of it v/as not 
high at all. Then, after the precious grain is all 
saved, they go over it again with an instrument 
something like a trowel would be, if, instead of a 
pointed blade, it had one with a lateral edge, and 
that sharp. This is thrust forward by a sudden 
motion of the hand, taking oft" all tufts of grass, and 
the weeds, at the surface of the ground, or a little 
below. Thus are the stubble-fields (though they 
have no stubble) cleared of everything that is left 
after harvest. All this stuff is dried and saved for 



ODDS AND ENDS. 2// 

cattle and horses, where there are horses. In the 
same manner you will see coolies on the common 
cutting the grass which has been grazed down until 
it stands in little tufts half an inch high. Many 
coolies, in this way, about the towns, make their 
poor living by getting grass to feed gentlemen's 
horses, bringing it in sometimes a distance of two or 
three miles. I said I had seen no human pack- 
horses except women, forgetting, at the moment, 
that I had often seen coolies bearing huge loads of 
grass on their heads. 

Let me pick up an '' end " of one of the " odds '* 
already introduced. Apropos of the gentleness of 
birds in India, I am told it is not a very uncommon 
thing to see a woman returning from market, with the 
provisions purchased in an open basket on her head, 
and a bird fluttering down and helping himself to 
some choice bits. This illustrates a scene in the drama 
of Pharaoh's chief baker. Will my juvenile readers 
tell me all about that when they see me ? 

There are about 100,000 Parsees in the world. 
Nearly all of them are in India, and over 50,000 in 
Bombay, so that more than one-half of all the Par- 
sees in the world are in this one city. They were Per- 
sians, originally, and hence the name Parsee. They 
are the followers of Zoroaster. The boys and girls 
who read this must get an Encyclopedia and find out 
all about their religion. When the Mohammedans 
invaded Persia nearly all the people submitted to the 
new faith ; but there were a good many plucky ones 
who were stubborn enough to go into exile rather 
than give up the religion of their forefathers. They 
came to India, and were indulgently received by cer- 



278 ODDS AND fiNDg. 

tain native princes. Not much is known of their for- 
tunes, I beheve, until the time of the conquest of 
India by the British. They were generally engaged 
in commercial pursuits ; and when the city of Bom- 
bay began to rise into importance they flocked to it 
in great numbers. Now many of the leading mer- 
chants of that city are Parsees. They are said to be 
sharp traders, almost always successful in busi- 
ness, but not parsimonious. They are liberal livers, 
and open-handed in public benefactions. Some 
of the most important public institutions of the city 
have been founded by them. A beggar is unknown 
among their number, so carefully and unostenta- 
tiously do they take care of their own poor. They 
are, in all respects, orderly and law-abiding subjects, 
and staunch friends of the English, by whom they 
are in turn much esteemed. 

At sunrise and at sunset multitudes of them may 
be seen on the Esplanade and in the public squares 
in Bombay — worshiping the sun, people say — but 
they themselves affirm that they worship the God 
who made the sun, through the sun, the most glori- 
ous sym.bol of His Being. Like the Buddhists and 
Romanists, they pray by the quantity, using beads 
for counters. The beads are conveniently arranged 
on strings, with large ones coming at convenient 
intervals for the tally. Some of the rich ones, who 
like a morning nap, pay a priest to pray for them two 
hours in the morning. They are usually of good 
size, of a very light color for Orientals, and, as a rule, 
exceptionally good-looking. Their ladies are beauti- 
ful, and go abroad freely, often in very rich costume. 

West of the city, across an arm of the Bay from 



ODDS AND ENDS. 2/9 

the Esplanade, is a ridge of 200 or 300 feet elevation, 
called Malabar Hill. On this the Parsees have their 
Towers of Silence, seven in number. They are hol- 
low, round, perpendicular structures, about 200 feet 
in diameter and 25 feet in height. Two feet, maybe, 
from the top, on the inside, is a metallic roof, incHn- 
ing dovv^nward toward the center, where there is an 
aperture through it about 1 8 inches in diameter, or 
perhaps less. Spaces large enough to contain a 
human body are depressed an inch or two below 
the general surface of the roof, or rather little 
ridges are raised above the general surface at 
the proper intervals. In these shallow grooves 
on the roof the bodies of the dead are laid. 
The theory is that they are exposed to the sun under 
the open heavens. The fact is, they are consumed 
by vultures. When the bones arc stripped, they are 
dropped through the aperture in the center, and fall 
into a well or pit. One tower is used for a specified 
time, and then another, and so on, giving time for the 
bones to decay. 

Vultures have been attracted to the vicinity in 
such numbers that they are ready to begin their 
work the moment a body is left, and the largest and 
toughest man has his bones completely cleaned in 
two hours. 

It makes mc shudder to write about it ! 



^ CHAPTER XXII. 

FROM INDIA TO EGrPT. 

eOMBAY, if it has not already outstripped Cal- 
cutta in commercial importance, will soon do 
so. Its recent growth is like that of the great 
American cities. Two facts are conspiring to render 
it the great center of Indian commerce. It is on the 
west side of the continent — the side nearest to 
Europe. It is, also, the center of the railway system 
of India. This system is already much extended, 
and is becoming more so. 

There is not a great deal to interest a stranger 
here, except the commerce and manufactures of the 
place. It is essentially a modern city, though there 
are some ancient objects in the vicinity visited by all 
travelers. Americans are pleased to find an instance 
of Yankee enterprise in the street-railroad owned by 
an American company, with all its rolling-stock 
imported from New York. But if it is a Yankee 
road it has an English name — tramway — for so are 
street-railways termed in England. 

To us a matter of greater interest was the prosper- 
ous condition of the M. E. Church here. The Rev. 
George Bowen, the Presiding Elder of the Bombay 
District, is a man of great, learning an4 great mod- 
esty, who came to India many years ago, under the 
auspices of the American Board, but ^fter a time 



t-ROM INDIA TO EGYPT. 28 1 

declined to receive any salary. Being an unmarried 
man, he rented a small room in the native town, and 
has ever since lived on — next to nothing. By 
natives and foreigners alike he is regarded as a stand- 
ard of integrity and piety. He has been for many 
years editor of the Bombay Guardian, an undenomi- 
national religious paper. The missionaries of various 
Churches united in calling him to this post. He 
reminds me in his spirit and manners of Wesley 
Browning. 

The pastor is the Rev. Mr. Rowe, a new arrival. 
He is an Englishman, but naturalized, ecclesiastically, 
in the M. E. Church i:i America. He was a class- 
mate and special friend, at the Theological Seminary, 
of Rev. James J. Watts, of St. Louis, and is full of zeal 
and energy. Rev. Mr. Stevenson is engaged in the 
work among the natives, and is a very earnest man. 
With these brethren we took sweet counsel, as well as 
with Mr. Miles, a local preacher, who was converted 
during the "great revival." He showed us much 
kindness. He is the Assistant Se-cretary of the 
Department of Justice in the Bombay Government. 
A Goverment launch was placed at his disposal, 
in which, with his family, we visited the great 
Hydraulic Lift and the celebrated " Caves of Ele- 
phanta." 

The Hydraulic Lift is a contrivance for raising the 
largest ships out of water. 

Elephanta is one. of several similar structures in 
India. It is a Brahman temple chiseled out in the 
side of a mountain in the solid rock. I did not 
measure it, but the principal apartment seemed to 
me to penetrate the rock as much as 150 feet, having 



282 FROM INDIA TO EGYPT. 

a width of, may be, 100 feet or more. But this is 
mere guess-work. Several rows of columns are left 
in the soHd rock, to give it the air of a building, I 
should say, as the solid rock above, I suppose, needs 
no support. The wall on all sides is literally covered 
with images of gods carved where they stand in the 
living rock. The sculpture is rather rude, but there 
is a good deal of life and spirit both in the faces and 
attitudes. Some of the attitudes are evidently 
intended to be lascivious, especially that of an Ama- 
zonian figure supposed to represent the wife of the 
god Sciva. This deity, it is believed, is represented 
by a triple-headed figure in the rear wall. This is 
evidently intended to be the principal figure, and to 
represent the ruling divinity of the place. On the 
left, as you enter, there is a smaller excavation — a 
sort of wing. Another was begun on the opposite 
side, but evidently never finished. Two figures of 
lions guard the entrance of the wing, and it is said 
that the rude figure of an elephant stood in the open 
area in front of it. This was at one time overthrown 
and broken into fragments, which, we were told, 
were collected and removed to the Victoria Gardens 
here. 

The Iconoclast has been busy at Elephanta. 
Nearly every figure has been more or less mutilated, 
and some have been almost entirely destroyed. 
Some of the columns have been broken down. 

As to the antiquity of this building, antiquaries are 
not agreed, I believe. The best informed, I under- 
stand, are not very confident in their opinions. 

I collected our party together and, standing on 
what remained of a broken column, sang " All hail 



FROM INDIA TO EGYPT. 283 

the power of Jesus' name," after which we joined in 
prayer to that God whose throne is from everlasting. 
How deeply we felt the contrast of his immutable 
Being with these miserable fragments of broken gods 
whose temples we had invaded with his praise ! In 
the dim light of that cavernous fane, where unhal- 
lowed rites had once been performed in honor of 
deities themselves- the embodiment of lust, we offered 
a pure sacrifice to Him whose name is Holy. 

Rising from our knees, we made the image-covered 
walls resound with the Long Meter Doxology, in the 
triumphant notes of Old Hundred, after which we had 
the Benediction by Brother Bowen, *' In the name of 
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." 
We left the place with the peace of God ruling in our 
hearts. 

On Monday, March 12, just at nightfall, we em- 
barked for Suez, in the good ship Australia, of the 
Peninsular and Oriental Line, Capt. Woolcot com- 
manding. This is one of the largest class of the Com- 
pany's steamers — an admirable vessel, admirably com- 
manded. The Captain has a great desire to visit Bos- 
ton, because some of his family emigrated to Massa- 
chusetts t'svo hundred years ago. He is an efficient 
officer and a thorough gentleman, genial and accom- 
modating, and weighs eighteen stone. 

The harbor pilot introduced himself to us as a mem- 
ber of the M. E. Church m Bombay. The night is 
clear, the stars are beautiful — the lights along the bay- 
shore, at the foot of Malabar Hill, look like a string 
of stars. All are on deck inhaling the fresh sea- 
breeze, and rejoicing in an auspicious beginning of 



284 FROM INDIA TO EGYPT. 

the voyage. The earth, the heavens, and the sea, 
conspire to breathe deHcious influences. 

*' Lower the boats !'' *' Lower the boats .^ " " Throw 
out life-preservers !^^ "What is it?" eagerly demand 
a hundred voices. " Man overboard !" respond one 
and another. There are always some knowing ones 
who can answer any question on the instant, no mat- 
ter what. 

The truth was, we had capsized a little native boat 
that had ventured out in the dark without carrying a 
light, so that the pilot did not see her until it was too 
late. The little craft carried five men and a boy. It 
was too dark to see them, but their cries of distress 
were wafted to us upon the night winds. It was a 
solemn moment — they might be drowning even then! 
Soon another cry was heard immediately under the 
stern of the ship. One boat was already gone in the 
direction of the more distant cry. How these men 
do strain every muscle pulling at the oars ! God be 
wuth them now ! Human life depends upon their 
speed. Another boat shoots round to the stern, and 
there rescues an old man and boy clinging to the 
screw, which had been instantly stopped. Joy! 
They are unhurt — they are safe ! They were brought, 
dripping, on board. Poor old man! how he wept! 
It was his boat, and his boat was his all. But his life 
was saved 1 Grief and gladness at once convulsed his 
heart. 

Our good captain never rested until all the six 
were rescued and taken to the light-house. Thanks 
to promptness and energy, not one was lost. 

It is a standing rule of these steamers to have the 
service of the English Church read on Sunday. If 



FROM INDIA TO EGYPT. 285 

there is no clergyman present the captain or purser 
officiates. I have invariably declined, not so much 
from any conscientious scruple, as because the ser- 
vice is scattered so through the book, and requires 
such dexterous turning from place to place, that I 
am sure I should make a miserable faux pas of it. 
The Sunday we were on the Arabian Sea Mr. Hen- 
drix read the service, after which I preached. It 
was his first attempt, and he did it excellently. It was 
after sunset when we reached Aden, so that Ave did 
not go ashore. But several Arabs came aboard with 
ostrich-feathers for sale. Sunday as it was they did a 
brisk business with the Christian (?) passengers. 

Aden is upon the southernmost projecting point of 
Arabia, and belongs to England, having been taken 
in the way of reprisal on account of the mistreatment 
of a disabled ship. The natives are kept in v/hole- 
some awe by a Sepoy garrison, and no British ship 
has been insulted in these waters since. You may 
depend on it our English cousins deport themselves 
right imperially in the Orient. They have a line of 
naval stations from Southampton to India, and are 
prepared to take care of their sailors everywhere in 
most prompt and effectual way. At Aden vv^e took 
on a lot of Mocha coffee. 

While we were at breakfast on Monday morning 
we passed the Island of Purim, and through the 
Straits of Babelmandeb, entering the Red Sea, and 
having Abyssinia on our left, and Arabia on our 
right. By a little after noon we came in full view of 
the city of Mocha, which is a much larger place than 
I supposed. Aden, too, is a more important place 
than I had imagined, having a population of 22,000. 



2S6 FROM INDIA TO EGYPT. 

I imagine we have as delightful a set of English 
passengers as ever got together upon one ship. 
There is scarcely a disgusting swell among them. 
They are intelligent, sensible, genial. Most of them 
are in the Indian service, civil and military, and 
going home on leave. There are several families. 
There is a piano on the deck, and in the evenings we 
have much music and singing — most of it rather 
insipid; but at the end of every piece there is 
applause, but this is as feeble as the music is dull. 
Is there anything in this world more ridiculous than 
a set of people applauding because they are duty 
bou7td. 

On Friday morning we awoke in the Gulf of 
Suez — and, but for some intervening ranges, would 
have had Mt. Sinai full in sight. We were rapidly 
Hearing the scenes of sacred history. To us it was 
an interesting moment. 

At about four o'clock, p. m., we reached the point 
at which immemorial tradition has located the cross- 
ing of the Red Sea by the chosen Tribes. I must 
say that the view of the locality goes far to confirm 
my conviction of the truth of this one tradition. 
The route from the land of Goshen was altogether 
practicable. If it is objected that Moses must have 
known that the Red Sea would arrest their progress 
on this line of march, and would therefore certainly 
avoid it, the reply is that God himself directed them, 
and he knew the resources of his own power to open 
their way. All the requirements of the narrative 
seem to me to be met here, and nowhere else. 

Even from on shipboard one can well see how 
impossible escape was, on the supposition that the 



i 



PR6M INDIA TO EGYPT. 2^^ 

Egyptian army was upon their rear, in pursuit. 
True, the mountains on the right hand and left are 
not so lofty as my youthful imagination had depicted, 
but there they are, lofty and precipitous enough to 
constitute an effectual barrier in the way of such a 
multitude. 

It is most true that {f the crossing zvas here the 
miracle was one of stupendous proportions. There 
is, I know, of late years, a class of writers who do 
not deny miracles, but yet strive to reduce both the 
number and magnitude of them to a minimum point. 
They seem as shy of miracles as if they were to be 
regarded as a sort of incubus upon the Christian sys- 
tem. But I can see neither good sense nor good 
logic in this. If any miracle is to be admitted, there 
can be no advantage in straining a point to get rid of 
such as appear by the very conditions of the narra- 
tive to be given as such. Nothing can be more evi- 
dent than that the account of the passage of the Red 
Sea is intended to be understood to be a miracle of 
the most remarkable kind. Any interpretation that 
seeks to get rid of this surface-import of the place 
must be strained and unnatural, and the effort to 
commend the Scriptures to minds skeptically dis- 
posed by such means, must of necessity defeat its 
own purpose ; for if a man finds that the text must 
be sugar-coated for him he will be more disposed to 
revolt against it disguised than in its proper charac- 
ter ; for it is of the very nature of the Christian reve- 
lation that, if it is of any value at all, it is so for what 
it purports to be, and when a healthy mind receives 
it, it must do so heartily, and in the utmost spirit of 
candor. Indeed, no man, whose mental faculties are 



2SS FROM INDIA TO EGYPT. 

in a normal condition, can believe in the truth of the 
Bible at all, as a revelation from God, and not at the 
same time admit the miraculous character of some of 
the facts it sets forth. 

But if any miracle is to be accepted, it seems to 
me this one must be. At least, there is as little 
occasion to question it as any. The occasion was, 
unquestionably, one of sufficient magnitude to justify 
a special manifestation of the divine presence and 
power. God was just taking this people under special 
tutelage with a viev/ to the highest ends, not for 
themselves alone, but such as embraced the destinies 
of the human race. They were to be the depositaries 
of his word, and custodians of his grace for mankind. 
To this end they must be at once brought out from 
among the idolators, and rescued from all idolatrous 
tendencies among themselves. For several ages 
they had been *' sojourning in the land of Ham," 
and, as abundant facts show, they had contracted 
such habits of thought from the prevalent religion 
that all the " wonders " wrought upon the heathen 
and among themselves could scarcely correct the 
taint. The plagues, the passage of the Red Sea, 
the scenes of Mount Sinia, the quails and manna, 
their conquest of the Holy Land, and all the signs 
from heaven that followed upon these through- 
out their most marvelous history, scarcely sufficed 
to secure them from lapsing into the grossest forms 
of Polytheistic belief Surely it Vv^as an occasion for 
God to come forth out of the ordinary methods of 
his working, and in new and startling forms, such as 
the most stupid might recognize, manifest forth his 
glory. 



FROM INDIA TO EG'YPT. 289 

If the occasion called for a miracle I can see no 
reason why it should not be wrought on a great 
scale. Why should not God open a way through 
the sea where it has a width of twenty miles as well 
as where it is of any lesser magnitude. 

The truth is that those who are always endeavoring 
to fritter away the miracles are sapping the very foun- 
dations of the faith. A religion that ignores the 
supernatural is no religion at ail. It may be a system 
of philosophy, or of ethics, but religion it is not. 
The Bible emptied of its miracles is altogether evis- 
cerated. 

Why should men, then, violate the probabilities of 
the case to put the crossing at a place where natural 
agencies might account for the phenomenon, and so 
discredit the narrative which was so clearly written to 
convey the impression that it was a miracle, and a very 
great one ? 

I strove to imagine the scene when the camp of the 
Israelites was on the Egyptian shore, in the depres- 
sion between the two mountain ranges we had full in 
sight. It must have covered an extent of ground 
several miles square. There they were, men, women, 
and children, flocks and herds. The Egyptians^ 
knowing the country, saw from the route they had 
taken that ''they were entangled in the land; the 
wilderness had shut them in." It was even so. They 
had run into a net, and Pharaoh had nothing to do 
but to go with a sufficient military force — and that, 
in the circumstances need not be large — and drive 
them back to their tasks. The dismay and terror that 
were felt among the people must have been some- 
thing fearful. The Egyptian army would soon be 
10 



^gO FPvOM INDiA TO EGYPT. 

precipitated upon them. The dreadful war-chariots, 
drawn by fierce fiery horses, would sweep through 
the helpless throng, and trample and mutilate and 
slay. 

But God has his own methods, and his own time 
of deliverance, and both in method and time he often 
brings a joyful surprise to his people. 

In full view, on the other side, was the shore of 
deliverance. There, in sight, was all the exultant 
host when they sang the song of Moses. There 
" Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a 
timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out 
after her with timbrels and with dances. And 
Miriam answerd them, * Sing ye to the Lord, for he 
hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider 
hath he thrown into the sea.' " 

Diagonally across you see from the deck of the 
ship a grove of palm-trees, where there are three 
wells of water. These are called "The Wells of 
Moses." The abounding traditions of the country 
fix on this as a camping-ground of the children of 
Isreal. But if it was, they went considerably out of 
their way to reach it. The Arab is full of traditions, 
and, as a rule, they are of no value whatever. 

But almost immediately the people began to mur- 
mur. Groaning under the intolerable labors of their 
bondage in Egypt, they had hailed their deliverer, 
and followed him into the wilderness with an eager 
and thoughtless faith, not dreaming of any evils to 
come. But here they are now destitute of bread and 
perishing for water. 

One glance at this desert will show how impossi- 
ble it must have been for such a multitude to be fed. 



FROM INDIA TO EGYPT. 2gi 

From Aden on, wherever we had sighted land, there 
was one uniform desert. We had positively seen no 
green thing, except on one small island, where there 
were perhaps twenty palm-trees. Then there was 
the little cluster of palms at the Wells of Moses. 
Aden is a barren rock. It is a shipping point for 
Mocha coffee, and other products of the interior. 
This and the English garrison make it all that it is. 
It is said that it rains there, on an average, once 
in three years. Three reservoirs, made by three 
dams across a mountain gorge, one below the other, 
preserve the water, and contain the supply for the 
long interval. 

Upon reflection, I believe a little verdure appears 
at Mocha. But the exception is so slight that it 
may be said this whole region is an area of rock 
and sand under a" blazing sky. On the African 
side it is no better. 

How well one understands the murmuring of the 
people on account of hunger when he once sees the 
region they were in. What added to their distress 
was their recollection of the prolific fields of the Nile 
valley they had so recently left. One must see this 
valley to realize the contrast. What wonderful uni- 
formity of luxuriant harvests ! What surpassing 
verdure ! Was it because I came upon it so sud- 
denly out of the desert that this valley seemed the 
freshest, greenest place I had ever seen ? The con- 
trast was reversed with the children of Israel. They 
had gone out of the valley into the wilderness — a 
treeless desert — where only interminable wastes met 
their cry for bread, and the deceitful mirage mocked 
their raging thirst. 



292 . FROM INDIA TO EGYPT. 

Think what human nature is. Think what your 
own nature is. Think what the desert is, and what 
Egypt is, and then say if you, too, would not have 
longed for the fleshpots. 

It was half-past five o'clock on Friday afternoon 
when we cast anchor at Suez, in sight of the mouth 
of the great canal. We were at the very head of the 
Gulf of Suez, which terminates in an oval point. We 
waited long for the steam launch, which we had been 
told would come out and take us to the very door 
of our hotel, and waited in vain At last ten of us 
engaged a little boat that had brought out fruit to 
sell, but which would take us only to the pier, two 
miles from the hotel. 

But of that landing by moonlight, of the donkeys 
and donkey-boys, of the handling of baggage, of the 
brisk ride along the elevated tra"ck of the railroad, 
and then through the narrow streets of Suez, and of 
the custom-house officials that met us in the way, 
and how we disposed of them, I must speak when I 
have greater space. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

SUEZ — CAIRO. 

OUR VERY first experience in Egypt was with 
the world-renowned donkeys and donkey-boys. 
On the perpendicular edge of the stone pier at 
Suez we met them in their strength, clamorous and 
persistent beyond belief as to which should get pos- 
session of our persons and baggage. A half-grown 
moon shed its light upon the scene, or I know not 
what we should have done. At last our baggage, 
consisting of two heavy valises and two large shawl- 
strap bundles, were loaded upon one little donkey, and 
each of us upon another. Our party, for the moment, 
consisted of H., myself, and eight others. H. and I 
got the best donkeys of the lot, or else we were the 
best riders. Away we dashed up the road on our two- 
mile ride to the hotel, our boys on foot not only keep- 
ing up, but urging the donkeys on. These donkey- 
boys are the best-natured fellows in the world, and 
afford travelers, who are disposed to enjoy It, a great 
deal of amusement. Mine turned out to be a Nubian 
as black as If he had been created out of a fragment 
of the old Egyptian darkness ; but they are gener- 
ally Arabs. H. got one of the latter class, and soon 
learned that the name of his donkey was " The Earl 
of Salisbury." You ought to have heard him laugh. 
It put him almost beside himself — the thought that 



I 



294 SUEZ — CAIRO. 

he was bestriding so distinguished a personage. As 
for mine, he was distinguished, not for patrician 
blood, but for the faithful and efficient discharge of 
his duties. 

We soon discovered that we were on a railroad 
embankment, projecting out into the edge of the 
gulf, with water on both sides of us. As we swept 
along at full pace, chatting and laughing over our 
first Egyptian experience, we were suddenly arrested 
by the cry, " Custom-house ! Custom-house !" 
" Where is the Custom-house ? There is no house 
here." " This man, sir, this man here, he is the cus- 
tom-man ; he want to see your baggage." By this 
time our baggage-mule was up. We put a bold front 
on, and told him he had nothing to do with our bag- 
gage — that we were travelers, v/ith nothing but cloth- 
ing. But he made as if he must examine and see if 
all was right. However, we peremptorily com- 
manded our boy to drive on. He hesitated a mo- 
ment, but obeyed us. By this time others of our 
party rode up, and I suppose the " custom-house " 
had his hands full with them. So we went careering 
on again,, amusing ourselves with the wit of our 
donkey-boys, delivered in broken English. We 
learned afterward that one of our friends gave the 
faithful official a shilling, which seemed to quiet his 
conscience completely. 

We felt much at our ease, having, as we supposed, 
got by all our difficulties. We had reached the 
town, and were just turning into the street which led 
to the Suez Hotel, when we were arrested a second 
time — "Custom-house, sir, custom-house." We 
promptly informed the distinguished Arab, who 



SUE2 — CAIRO. 295 

appeared in his long black cloak and red fez hat, 
that we had already passed one custom-house, and 
did not intend to be stopped again. ** Yes," vocif- 
erated the donkey-boys, *' de gentlemen already 
pass one custom-house " — and so we pushed ahead. 

We were soon riding along a narrow street, well- 
lighted from the shops which opened full upon it. 
It was crowded with people who wer^ out enjoying 
the festivities incident to the approaching birthday of 
the Prophet. We turned a corner into another nar- 
nower street, and still another. These streets were 
too narrow for two abreast, and I had got well ahead 
of all the rest, my Nubian all the while urging on his 
donkey. We soon turned suddenly into the nar- 
rowest of streets, v/ith no lighted shops, and the walls 
rising up so as to exclude the moonlight. It was 
pitch dark. The little space around me was, so far 
as I could tell, of the exact color of my Nubian; but 
I have always had great faith in the fidelity of a 
well-treated darkey, and so I moved on without the 
least hesitation. 

I had been at the hotel gate but a moment when 
the Earl came up with his rider, all safe and sound, 
and immediately in his rear came the baggage, which 
had run the gauntlet of custom-houses without hav- 
ing contributed a cent to the revenues of the bank- 
rupt Government, or to the stealages of the officials. 

We found excellent quarters and good fare at the 
Suez Hotel, and paid a good round price for it, and 
at 8 o'clock were off by rail for Cairo. In a few 
minutes we were fairly out into the Egyptian desert. 
On our left was the ridge just beyond which we sup- 
posed the track of the children of Israel lay when 



296 SUEZ — CAIRO. 

the Egyptians pursued them. The precipitous face 
of it was of a dark-brown color, with a stratum of 
white-looking rock running all along, about one- 
third of the way down from the top. We should 
probably be, before the close of the day, in the land 
of Goshen, or if not, then certainly very near it. 

To Ismaili the road follows the course of the 
canal, then strikes across to Zigazag, in the edge of 
the Delta of the Nile, making a very circuitous 
course. 

What shall I say of this desert? It is all of a 
piece with that on the Arabian side of the Red Sea, 
and is, indeed, a part of it. Those who have seen 
the worst of" the American deserts in the West may 
form some idea of it. Like them it is completely 
destitute of trees, and yet more entirely bare of all 
smaller vegetation than they. For the greater part 
of the way it is a mere level waste of sand, much of 
it lying loose, and at the mercy of the wind. In 
several places we saw sand fences, made for the 
same purpose of protecting the road as the snow- 
fences on the Union Pacific and Central F cine Rail- 
roads. The track is in the same danger of being 
obstructed by sand-drifts here as by snow-drifts 
there. Much of it is a dead level, but there are 
slight elevations here and there, and in the distance, 
to the left, some low ranges of rocky, barren moun- 
tains. But all is desert — all is desolation. 

To say there is absolutely no vegetation in the 
desert would not be quite true. But there are great 
reaches of it as bare as any sand-bank in the world. 
Once in a while, though, there are scattered tufts of 
a sort of weed resembling, in its general appearance, 



SUEZ CAIRO. 297 

one I have seen in the Rocky Mountains, and in a few 
places I saw a small shrub that has somewhat the 
aspect of the mountain-sage, though differing from it 
considerably. Hillocks of sand are formed where, 
drifting before the wind, it lodges against the tufts, 
becomes fixed by their roots, and enlarges as the 
tuft increases in size. I have seen the like in Ameri- 
can deserts. 

The canal taps two considerable lakes in its 
course, both of which are in full view from the rail- 
road. The surface of these, rippling in the rays of 
the sun, relieves the brown baldness of the desert 
very pleasantly. 

A short branch of the road, only a mile or two in 
length, runs down to Ismaili ; on to this the train is 
switched. After running down to the town, we back 
up to the main track, and, leaving the course of the 
canal, strike across in a straight line for the Delta, 
which we enter about seventy miles south of Cairo. 
On nearing the Delta we first come upon some lines 
and patches of verdure, and a few scattering palm- 
trees ; then, ere we are aware of it, we are in the 
midst of an ocean of green fields, with groves of 
palm here and there, the w^hole presenting a wealth 
of luxuriant productiveness, in such violent contrast 
with the desert, that we involuntarily exclaim, "We 
are in a new world!'' There is probably no place on 
earth where the most abounding life is brought into 
such close contrast with the blackest desolation. 
The nearest approach to it I have ever seen is in the 
valley of the great Salt Lake in Utah Territory. 

From this point to Cairo we are in the midst 
of fields of wheat, barley, clover, flax, oats, and 



298 SUEZ— CAIRO. 

various species of vegetables. The cereals are just 
in full head, not yet beginning to change color. 
Green, deep, luxuriant green, refreshes the eye on all 
sides. I at first mistook the wheat for barley, it is so 
heavily bearded. The head is extremely short and 
large. The stalk is not remarkably long, but thick 
upon the ground. The flax is ripening, and patches 
of this offer the only points of contrast with the 
otherwise universal verdure. One large field of 
onions I saw, and thought, of course, of the ** leeks 
and onions." 

In the midst of all this the mud villages appear 
every here and there. Every traveler in Egypt ob- 
serves these, and remarks upon them as a repulsive 
feature in the otherwise cheerful landscape. They are 
indeed so, but yet the average hut of the Egyptian vil- 
lage is larger than that of the villages in the valley of 
the Ganges. Here, as there, the rural population all 
cluster together in villages. But the village of the 
Nile is a more prominent object, and attracts more 
notice, being built on elevated gi-ound in the midst of 
the surrounding fields, which are literally as level as a 
floor. This is a necessary incident of the annual 
inundation. These elevations themselves, however, 
are not above the reach of the greatest floods. 

A very striking object in sight at every turn is the 
water-wheel, used in elevating water out of the canal 
for purposes of irrigation. Canals check the Delta 
everywhere, and the land is irrigated very freely. 
But the surface of the canal is several feet below that 
of the fields, so that the water cannot be turned on 
as in Montana, and elsewhere in the West, but has 
to be raised and delivered into the ditches in the 



t 



§UE2 — CAIRO. 299 

fields by artificial means. Sometimes you see a man 
standing in the canal, dipping it up in buckets, and 
pouring it into a little ditch that communicates with 
his fields. But more frequently there is a wheel 
worked by oxen or buffaloes. There is a wheel that 
lies horizontally, connected with a shaft to which the 
ox is hitched, moving round and round as the horses 
do in an old-fashioned horse-mill. Cogs pointing 
downward from the rim of this, work in a drumhead, 
which turns the water-wheel. This revolves perpen- 
dicularly. Buckets attached to the rim of this 
descend into the water empty, with the mouth down- 
ward, and come up full, with the mouth up. As they 
make the upper turn they discharge their contents 
into a trough. 

But some of the wheels are more neatly contrived, 
the rim being itself a hollow receptacle for the water, 
which is continually filling itself from below, and 
discharging its contents from the side as it reaches 
the right elevation. 

The sun was still an hour high as we approached 
the great city. *' The Pyramids !" exclaimed a pas- 
senger. All heads were thrust out of the win- 
dows in an instant. Sure enough, there they were, 
great Cheops and his companion, beyond the river, 
on the edge of the desert. 

Soon the minarets and larger buildings of Cairo 
began to appear. Like the great cities of India, it has 
many buildings in the European style. The Western 
civilization is penetrating the East — there can be no 
doubt of it. It appears first in its material expression 
— into the more purely intellectual region of science 
and philosophy, and the higher region of faith, it 



300 SUEZ — CAIRO. 

enters with greater difficulty. So, also, it appears 
first in the cities, and among the commercial and 
wealthy classes, diffusing itself slowly through the 
country and among the ignorant masses. 

As we drove through the streets from the depot, in 
the spacious, open-sided omnibus of Shepherd's 
Hotel, we passed along a mile, perhaps, of massive 
and elegant buildings on both sides. It is by far the 
largest city of Egypt, and is said to be the second in 
size of the Mussulman world. The hotel we found to 
be a spacious building, with excellent rooms, ele- 
gantly furnished. The eating is choice, the attend- 
ance first-rate, the washing faultless — prices up to 
the American standard, with a good many extras that 
you can take or dispense with at pleasure. 

From Yokohama onward, through the cities of 
China, in the Straits Settlements, in Ceylon, and 
throughout India, we found ourselves in an English 
atmosphere. I have referred to this in former com- 
munications. But the moment you land at Suez you 
become conscious of a change. In Egypt every 
thing is decidedly Frenchy. Business men and postal 
signs are in French. Tailors' shops are Sartoria. 
Your hotel-waiter is an elegantly got-up Frenchman, 
in spotless linen and a swallow-tail coat. Your bill 
of fare is in French. The Museum is \' Musee U An- 
tiquites Egyptiennes!' At the railroad depot, if you 
would know which is the waiting-room for men, and 
which for women, you must be able to read French. 
So of everything else. 

Yet at your hotel you will find nearly all the guests 
English, and the clerk, though probably a French- 
man, will be able to converse very fluently in English. 



SUE2 — CAIRO. 301 

The population of Egypt is set down at 8,400,000. 
Of these about 200,000 are Copts. They are gener- 
ally found in the towns and cities. They are largely 
employed in places of official trust, or as clerks and 
accountants in business houses. The Copts are 
Christians, but as in the Greek and Latin Churches, 
so in theirs, there is little else than dead formality. 
Holy places and holy relics abound among them, 
with the use of the crucifix, and lights always burn- 
ing. 

Our Sunday was spent with the Mission of the 
United Presbyterian Church. This is the only 
Protestant Church engaged in missionary labors in 
Egypt. The first missionaries entered the field in 
1854. The first Church was organized in Cairo in 
1863. They are now at work in Alexandria, Cairo, 
Monsura, Sinoris, Osiut, Motea, Nakhaleh, Koos, 
and several smaller places. There are now eight 
missionaries in the field. The Report for 1875 
shows a membership of 6^6. The Sabbath-school 
attendance is set down at 658. Pupils in day- 
schools, 1,040; in boarding-schools, 66 ; in college, 
84; in theological school, 10. Present statistics 
would put up all these figures considerably. Con- 
gregations in some places are small, in others quite 
lirge. The missionaries are full of hope and zeal, 
and abundant in labors. Their success is confined 
almost entirely to the Copts, though there are 
instances of conversion among the Mahommedans. 

The gentlemen of the Mission were all away at 
Osiut, attending a session of the Presbytery of 
Egypt. The ladies, however, welcomed us, and 
gave us valuable information. We saw the Sunday- 



302 SUE2 — CAIRO. 

school, and heard a native helper, in the morning. 
It was his first sermon. His text was well chosen ; 
" Other foundation can no man lay." He is a fine- 
looking man, and seemed self-possessed and earnest. 
By the way, both Copts and Arabs here are of a 
decidedly lighter complexion than our Aryan cous- 
ins in India. 

A young divinity student from America had been 
engaged to preach at 1 1 o'clock, in English. He 
read a very good sermon on the Transfiguration. 

We were invited to preach to the natives in 
another part of the city, where Miss Thompson has 
a Sunday-school, in connection with which there is 
usually preaching to a small congregation. Mr. 
Hendrix preached to them a very suggestive ser- 
mon on the Burning Bush. A native teacher, a 
young man, interpreted for him, and, Miss Thomp- 
son assured us, did it very well. At five o'clock we 
were at the Church again, and heard a sermon in 
Arabic, read by one of the deacons, who is a Greek. 
Mrs. Lansing, the wife of the missionary in charge, 
requested me to give the native Christians some 
account of our voyage, with such exhortations as I 
might feel disposed to offer. My interpreter was the 
young preacher of the morning — a capital young 
man. After a very brief sketch of our trip, I pro- 
claimed to them, "There is no God but God, and 
Jesus Christ is his Son," which my interpreter ren- 
dered with an evident glow of sensibility, giving it in 
excellent tone and emphasis. Even here in Africa 
I have preached ''Jesus and the resurrection." 

My friends must bear with me if I pause long 
enough to say that no incident of my trip gives me 



SUEZ — CAIRO. 303 

SO much satisfaction as the opportunity it has given 
me of preaching Christ in Japan, China, Ceylon, 
India, and Egypt. 

On Monday we had a busy day. First we visited 
an old mosque, at the entrance of which they 
required us to take off our boots. But we were in no 
dis-tress to enter, and so turned away with our boots 
on. The old priest looked regretfully after us, for 
had he not lost a fee ? We then drove to the citadel. 
Cairo stands in the Nile Valley, but at the very base 
of the bluff-like elevation which rises to the general 
level of the desert. Half-way up this ascent stands 
the citadel, overlooking the city, the valley and the 
upper end of the Delta, which begins to spread out at 
Cairo. The walls are massive. Within its inclosure 
is the Mosque of Mehemet AH. It is a very modern 
structure, built of Oriental alabaster. This stone 
takes a good polish, and presents a variegated sur- 
face of white and amber colors. The two colors are 
in rare instances separated from each other sharply, 
but generally they shade off into each other, a great 
part of the polished area presenting a mottled or 
crowded appearance, which is extremely rich. Col- 
umns, arches, domes, galleries, are all magnificent. 
The great central dome, especially, is brilliant with 
gorgeous coloring. The architecture is perhaps not 
so good as that of the great mosques at Agra and 
Dehli, but it is of a different style, and, I think, more 
imposing. Those all had one open side ; this has not. 
It has a countless number of lamps and chandeliers, 
and, when fully illuminated, as it sometimes is, the 
splendor of the scene must be indescribable. 

It is a rule of the mosques to require the shoes to 



304 SUEZ — CAIRO. 

be removed before a man is allowed to enter, but in 
this instance a sort of cloth oversock was put on over 
our boots, and so, I suppose, we were constructively 
barefoot. The whole area of the floor was covered 
with carpeting. A " dim religious light " pervaded 
the vast structure. Half-a-dozen mollahs were seated 
in one corner, some reading and others reciting pray- 
ers, all in an audible tone. Our guide paid no atten- 
tion to them. I was disposed to keep silence when 
we came near them. Not so he, for in the very 
midst of them he spoke in the highest key. 

Within the citadel, also, is ''Joseph's" well. It is 
a square hole, 1 5 feet in diameter and near 300 in 
depth. A spiral inclined plane of easy grade 
descends around it to the very bottom, a thin wall 
only separating between it and the well, with win- 
dows opening into the well at considerable inter- 
vals. Two mules are kept at the bottom, working 
the wheel which elevates the cool, crystal water to 
the top. We descended about half-way and, looking 
through one of the windows, saw the bottom and the 
beautiful water there distinctly. 

In the same inclosure is the palace of the former 
Viceroy. It is never used now, but the carpets, fur- 
niture, and tapestry, are still there, and the house is 
still neatly kept. We were taken through every part 
of it. It seemed very magnificent until we saw 
another palace. 

In the citadel we saw the spot where the Mama- 
lukes were massacred, and the wall over which Emin 
Bey leaped his .horsQ to escape the universal 
slaughter. What a descent to make on horseback ! 

But the great Do^c^ is to com^ off at about noon, 



SUEZ — CAIRO. 305 

and if we are to witness it, or get in a hundred yards 
of it, it is high time we were on the ground. The 
Dosee ; what is that ? 

Well, this day, March 25, is the anniversary of the 
birth of Mohammed — and of his death as well. It is, 
therefore, an uncommonly holy day — the holiest of 
all days. It is the climax and close of a season of 
holydays of near two weeks. Both nights that we 
have been in Cairo there has been an uproar of pro- 
cessions, with music and fire-works. To-day it is to 
culminate in the Dosee. 

For this purpose there is an avenue laid off of per- 
haps a quarter of a mile in length, bounded on one 
side by a line of tents, one belonging to the Prince, 
and the others to various distinguished personages; 
and on the other by a line of standards bearing the 
national colors. This avenue is kept open by the 
police. Outside of it, in all directions, spectators 
assemble. Just inside, however, of the line of flags, 
there was a long row of flashy carriages, occupied 
by gorgeously dressed ladies. They were ladies of 
the harem and of families related to the Khedive, 

When we arrived on the ground there were many 
thousand spectators already assembled. Three or 
four rows of carriages were already in place outside 
of the line of flags. Our driver understood his busi- 
ness, however, and got us to a very good place. 
When we looked around we saw a number of large 
tents scattered in various directions. Masses of peo- 
ple were astir in every direction, jabbering and laugh- 
ing. Women were passing around everywhere, sell- 
ing fruit and cakes, and boys with jugs of drinking 
water, Beggars abounded. The crowd increased 



306 SUEZ — CAIRO. 

perpetually. The tops of neighboring houses were 
covered with people. On the outskirts of the crowd 
is a flying dutchman. Revolving swings are in full 
play. It is a lively scene. 

But the Dosee lingers. We have been here over 
an hour and nothing has happened. Thanks to the 
breeze and the clouds, we have been very com- 
fortable. 

There they come ! a number of men at full speed 
along the avenue, bearing gayly-colored banners 
with singular devices and inscriptions in Arabic. A 
multitude follow, all running. Still they come, filling 
the avenue. These are the principal actors and their 
friends, there being two or three dozen friends to 
one actor. 

An arduous moment for the police — a, space six 
feet wide and one or two hundred yards long must 
be opened in the crowded avenue. In this space 
men are laid down flat on their faces, and as close to 
each other as they can be placed. I could not learn 
how many there were, but probably several hundred. 

Now, up the avenue come other men, bearing ban- 
ners and running directly over those who are pros- 
trate, treading on their backs. 

Then comes a beautiful white Arab horse, of good 
size, led by two men, one on each side. On the 
horse is seated a sheik — a most holy man — the most 
holy man in Egypt — probably in the world. He is 
asleep, or feigns sleep, and one man walks along on 
each siflfe to support him in the saddle. On they 
come, up to the row of prostrate men, and on to 
them, right along over their backs, treading on them, 
from one end of the row to the ©ther rides the 



SUEZ — CAIRO. 307 

holy sheik, with his two supporters walking along, 
one on each side. 

The victims of this horrible piece of folly are vol- 
unteers. They are told that if they are holy they will 
not be hurt, and if they are under any guilt, and so 
become maimed, or lose their lives, their sin will be 
atoned by the great merit of the act, and all the 
rewards of paradise will be sure. They believe every 
word of it. Besides all that, there is the eclat of the 
occasion. The whole city will come together to see 
it. The beautiful women of the palace will look on 
and applaud such an act of heroic piety. 

Were any killed ? I do not know. It is hard to get 
at the truth. Several were seen carried out by their 
friends in a helpless state. The American Vice -Con- 
sul saw one whose back was broken. If he dies, as no 
doubt he must die, the fact will never be published. 

At night there was a great display of fire-works 
and dancing dervishes, and I know not what else, on 
the same ground. 

So is the birthday of Mohammed celebrated in the 
great city of Cairo, the capital of Egypt ! 

It is both repugnant to my feelings and contrary 
to my practice to witness barbarous spectacles, but 
as I am seeing the world, especially in its religious 
aspects, not for myself only, but for others, I con- 
cluded to depart from my custom. For the same 
reason I have devoted so much space to it. The 
Dosee is a shocking reality. This sheik does ride on 
horseback over the backs of men lying close 
together on their faces. 

Our guide to the Pyramids informed us that he 
■ himself twice volunteered — that he had actually twice 

L 



308 SUEZ — CAIRO. 

bee7i bidden over by the holy man ! He farther assev- 
erated that the horse had stepped on his back and 
he scarely felt it ! — the horse with the holy sheik on 
his back was nothing like so heavy as the men who 
trod him ! 

In the afternoon we visited the museum. It con- 
tains nothing but Egyptian antiquities. Of these 
there is a great number; many very greatly muti- 
lated, but many others in excellent preservation. It 
would require a book to give even a brief account of 
them. Many of them are figures and inscriptions — 
some in relief and some in basso relievo. There are 
some also in wood which, though not decayed, have 
an indescribable look which you recognize at once 
as being the effect of age. I saw two complete stat- 
ues carved in wood. These have been pronounced 
by antiquaries to be among the oldest objects that 
have been found, yet strange to say, they are among 
the best specimens of art we saw. In features, 
attitudes, anatomy, they were excellent. Mummy 
cases, statues, religious symbols, and jewelry abound. 
We saw a fragment of a mirror from the age of the 
Pharaohs. As a reflector it was perfect. 

We next saw the Kilometer — an upright shaft with 
marks on it to indicate the stages of the rise in the 
river. From that we visited the old Mosque of 
Amar. It consists of porticoes around an open court. 
The porticoes are supported by numerous pillars of 
stone. One of them is of polished marble of a dark 
color. Our guide pointed out to us a white vein in 
the marble, and on one side a place where the stone 
was considerably flattened. " This column," said 
he, ''came from Mecca. Mohammed struck it with 



SUEZ — CAIRO. 309 

his whip ; see this white streak ; that is the Prophet's 
whip-lash. See this flat place. There he struck it 
with his hand and said, 'Go to Amar!' It flew 
through the air, and here it is." 

That was as big a dose of tradition as we could take 
at once; so we paid our backsheesh, and drove to 
a Coptic convent near by. After a whiff of fresh 
air we found ouselves ready now for the Christian 
traditions that awaited us. This convent, we were 
told, was built over the house in which Joseph and 
Mary lived with the ''young Child," during the 
sojourn in Egypt. It is a very large, but unsightly 
building. We were first taken into the chapel, where 
we met a priest — a very fine-looking man. We saw 
there the crucifix, some rude paintings on the walls, 
a lighted lamp, kept perpetually burning, and some 
other objects of no special intererst. Then, going 
out into the narrow street, we were conducted to 
the other end of the building, and into what they 
assured us were the apartments occupied by the 
" Holy Family." Here we were shown the figures 
of several of the apostles carved in wood, in relief, 
on the wall. They were quite like Methodist 
preachers in ^ one respect, being on horseback — a 
decidedly apostolic conception. Every thing was 
dark, there being no windows, and our vision was 
aided only by a feeble tallow-candle, so that my 
recollection of the place is very dim. But at the 
end of a narrow passage, in a recess in the wall, 
they pointed out a baptismal font rudely cut in a 
large block of granite, in which they assured us the 
Infant Jesus was baptized ! 

Absurd as all this is, it must be admitted that 



310 MEMPHIS — siKkARArf — Gmmn. 

the Mohammedan traditions cap all others. Yet 
the Copts keep up in the race pretty well. I notice 
this difference : there is always an historical start- 
ing point for the Coptic tradition, while the Mus- 
sulman seems to take a special pleasure in such as 
are the pure and grotesque creations of his own 
fancy. 

But in the convent the clamor for backsheesh was, 
if possible, even more urgent than in the mosque. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

MEMPHIS SIKKARAH GHIZEH. 

T CAIRO, on Tuesday, we did two days' work 
in one. We had a party of four, and em- 
ployed an efficient guide ; but all the guides 
spoke English indifferently. Taking our donkeys 
on the train, we went by rail to Old Memphis, about 
eleven miles. There we mounted and rode through 
the ruins. This was the capital of Egypt in the most 
ancient times, and many of the antiquities now seen 
in the Museum were taken from its ruins. But there 
are no columns nor broken arches standing, such as 
make the ruins of Thebes so attractive. Of its 



MEMPHIS — SIKKARAH — GHIZEH. 3II 

ancient splendor only great heaps of rubbish remain, 
with broken bricks and fragments of pottery — except 
a coioss'al statue of Rameses, otherwise called Sesos- 
tris. There is no doubt as to the identity of this 
statue, as the name is on the belt. Rameses was the 
greatest of all the Egyptian monarchs, either of 
ancient or modern times, extending his conquests far 
and wide in Northern Africa and Western Asia. 
Memorials of his power are found in distant regions. 

This statue is a full-front figure, but the back is a 
mere mass of unhewn stone. Long ago it fell pros- 
trate in the mud, with the face downward, inclining a 
little to one side. In this position it was covered 
with sand ; but this has been dug away so as to give 
a pretty full view of it. It is in a good state of pres- 
ervation, though a little injured at one or two points. 
The contour of the face may be seen, though the 
great nose and mouth are partly in the sand. The 
features are well executed ; and it has been remarked 
that all the statues of this wonderful man give in the 
facial lines an expression of extraordinary power. 
The old Egyptians were evidently of a race not 
differing in any material way from the present inhab- 
itants of the country — and the general type of the 
face here, as in India, is marvelously like that of the 
Caucasian. Only in complexion is there any mate- 
rial difference, and in many instances both Copt and 
Arab are comparatively light. 

It did seem a pity that this great work of art — 
this memorial of the most splendid epoch of Egyp- 
tian history — should be permitted to remain in a 
position so humiliating. The Khedive would have 
done himself credit if he had abated somewhat the 



312 MEMPHIS-— SIKKARAtI — GHIZEH. 

splendor of his palaces, and devoted the revenue 
thus saved to rescuing the old Rameses from such a 
miserable plight ; but he appears to be destitute of 
all such generous sentiment. 

The size of this great piece of statuary may be 
imagined from the fact that the arm is eight feet 
from shoulder to elbow by our ta.pe-line. 

We lingered some time contemplating this pros- 
trate grandeur, and then mounted our donkeys and 
galloped away. Mounds, mounds, mounds — the 
dumb remains of a life that perished thousands of 
years ago ! What an area they cover ! But here, 
penetrating in amongst them, wherever there is a 
level spot, are the green fields and the living fellahin. 
Some of them are planting Indian corn, and in some 
fields there is tobacco. So America reappears in 
Egypt. But on we cantered tov/ard Sikkarah — five 
men on donkeys, the donkey-boys following, whip- 
ping up the little brutes, and ready for any service. 
My donkey, a fat little fellow, was the laziest of the 
lot, every now and then fallingl:o the rear ; but he was 
in wholesome fear of the goad, and whenever the end 
of it threatened him he would make as if he were 
going to kick up, and then gallop off for some time 
with great vigor. I felt a little nervous about his 
motions at first, but soon found that it was all make- 
believe, and felt perfectly at my ease. It was capital ! 
— that donkey-riding. If I were a rich man I should 
be tempted to import a donkey and a donkey-boy to 
America for my own private use. 

We have reached the edge of the desert, which 
swells up boldly, but not precipitously, to an eleva- 
tion of perhaps four hundred feet from the level of 



MEMPHIS — SIKKARAK — GHl2EtI. 3I3 

the valley. As we ascend this let us look back over 
the magnificent forest of palms in the midst of which 
the ruins of Memphis lie — by far the largest forest 
we have seen in Egypt. Leaving the valley v/ith its 
palm-trees and ruins behind, we press on over the 
bare and undulating sands of the desert, glaring 
under the unobstructed rays of the sun. Before us 
are the pyramids of Abusir Sikkarah. These are a 
cluster of small pyramids, only one of them being of 
any considerable size. The largest one is peculiar 
also in its form. There is not, as in the case of the 
others, a uniform slope from base to apex, but a suc- 
cession of perpendicular walls, each, as you ascend, 
rising from a narrower base than the one below it. 
There are five of these stories. 

In the neighborhood of these pyramids you see 
numerous excavations in the sand, at the bottom of 
which, even as you ride along, you see the masonry 
which stands at the opening of long galleries dug into 
the old limestone-beds that underlie the sands, which 
the winds of ages have heaped up. These rock- 
hewn galleries are the tombs of Memphis. Here not 
only men but sacred birds and animals repose. The 
very sands into which the feet of our donkeys sink 
so deeply are white with the fragments of bones. 
Many of the treasures of the Museum at Cairo were 
exhumed here. 

But our time Is limited, and we cannot linger upon 
objects of common interest. We are on our way to 
the subterranean galleries of the Temple of Serapis. 
Here we are at the entrance. We descend by a 
flight of stone steps from the surface to a cavernous- 
looking opening below, with a limestone wall on 



314 MEMPHIS — SiKttARAH — CH12EH. 

either hand. Once down, we Hght several candles, 
and, proceeding along in the pitch darkness, we see 
arched recesses, or vaults, made at right angles with 
the line of the gallery, some on one side, and some 
on the other, with considerable intervals between 
them. These recesses are perhaps 25 feet square, 
the floor being sunk several feet below the floor of 
the gallery. In each of them is a huge granite sar- 
cophagus, the lov/er part, which contained the body, 
being a monolith. Upon this is a massive lid of the 
same material, not less than two feet thick. I made 
no measurements, but the main gallery must be three 
hundred yards long. It is bifurcated at one point, 
a shorter branch running in for some distance. 
Neither the height nor width of the gallery is great-^ 
not over 15 feet, I should think. 

Two of the sarcophagi are more carefully finished 
than the rest. One of these we examined with care. 
It is of a very hard black stone, highly polished, with 
straight lines of chiseKmarks running down the side, 
say three inches apart. Near the top there is a hori- 
zontal border running around it, filled with rude fig- 
ures in outline, some of birds, some of a character 
which may be hieroglyphic. But all the figures are 
a mere outline of chisel-marks, stiff, and wanting in 
any thing like vital expression. The lid had been 
slipped along two or three feet, leaving an opening 
at one end. To this we climbed up by a flight of 
steps, and found the interior cavity to be not less 
than three, perhaps four feet deep, and eight or ten 
in length. 

I have said these sarcophagi are of granite. Stan- 
ley says they are of black marble. I am not adept 



MEMPHIS — SIKKARAH — GHIZEH. 315 

in distinguishing different species of stone, but I 
think I cannot be mistaken In the opinion that these 
are of granite, and not marble. Stanley's descrip- 
tion, moreover, had raised in me expectations that 
were disappointed. So far as mere plain massive- 
ness constitutes grandeur they are grand as com- 
pared with any other sarcopJiagi I have ever seen, 
but magnificent they certainly are not. But when 
you consider that these gallaries are excavations of 
such vast extent in a solid limestone ridge, and that 
these great granite blocks, hewn into coffins, must 
have been brought down the Nile from the cataracts, 
then transported from the river several miles across 
the level valley, then again up the inclined plane of 
the desert to an elevation of several hundred feet, 
then out across the sands a mile or two, and then 
lowered into these galleries, and moved along each 
to its own recess, where it had to be lowered again 
to the floor of the recess, you will be able to form 
some idea of the incredible magnitude of the work. 

You would know the names of the wonderful men 
— statesmen — conquerors — philosophers who repose 
here, provided at such cost for their final rest? 

Know then that it was never provided for men, 
but for Bulls — Apis, the sacred Bull. Tliere are the 
carcasses of the brute gods as they died, one after 
another. A brute god ! A god that died ! 

In addition to all this, this divine beef was em- 
balmed, and made into mummies. 

I leave my reader to his own reflections; I will 
not attempt to do the moralizing which the occasion 
calls for. 

We visited one other tomb at Sikkarah — In this 



L 



3l6 MEMPHIS — SIKKARAH — GHIZEH. 

instance the tomb of a man — some prime minister of 
the old, old times. There are several apartments, 
the walls covered with sculptured and colored fig- 
ures, representing boats on the Nile, and various 
employments of servants, especially connected with 
the cuisine of the departed. Servants carrying pro- 
visions constitute a very common group in the 
funereal sculpture of ancient Egypt. In this one 
there is nothing to distinguish it from the ordinary 
monuments of the country. 

Some ten miles of desert remained to be traversed 
before we should reach the great pyramid of Cheops. 
The performance of both donkeys and donkey-boys 
interested us much. I never saw a horse or mule 
that would have kept the same rate of speed in deep 
sand, at the same temperature, for a half-hour, with- 
out fagging. But these little creatures, about forty 
inches in height, took us the whole distance often or 
eleven miles with very little apparent fatigue — at a 
rate of rhore than five miles an hour. 

Arrived at Ghizeh, we found a good lunch, which 
we had taken the precaution to send out, and the 
need of which we now felt very decidedly, awaiting 
us. 

We sat on the steps of a new building which the 
Khedive has erected to entertain distinguished visi- 
tors, and ate our lunch. An Arab came up while we 
were in the act of leaving, and charged us step-rent. 
Hundreds of specimens of ancient coin, and little 
images supposed to be ancient, but probably made 
last week in Cairo, with pieces of alabaster from the 
temple of the Sphinx, and many such like things, 
were urged upon us with a clamor and persistency 



MEMPHIS'— SIKKARAH — GHIZEH. 3 1 / 

which tested our patience to the utmost. Offers of 
service were equally officious and urgent. A man 
would hold your stirrup, unasked, when you mounted 
or dismounted, and then coolly demand a fee. If 
ever you speak to an Arab, or even look at him 
for a moment, you may rest assured that the end of 
the affair will be a fee. 

The first thing we visited there was the temple of 
the Sphinx, which was entirely buried by the sands 
until within late years the interior has been dug out; 
but it is rapidly filling again. It consists of several 
passages and apartments, and is remarkable chiefly 
for the size of the stones of which it is built, and 
for a fine alabaster which appears just at the surface 
of the sand, and which Arab boys break off to sell. I 
was barbarian enough to encourage this demolition 
so far as to purchase a few fragments — one for Cen- 
tral College, one for Vanderbilt, and one for — my- 
self. 

This structure is near the Sphinx, and no doubt its 
floors are on the same level with the feet of that 
wonderful figure, which is covered up to the very 
line of the back by the desert sands. Some years 
ago the sand was removed so as to lay the greater 
part of this colossal monster bare, but the drifting 
sand has covered it again, so that nothing is now 
exposed but the head and neck, and the upper line 
of the body, which as on a level with the surface of 
the ground. But the great neck and head rise above 
the sand to a height that I will not venture to 
estimate. " It was evidently cut out of the rock where 
it stands. Probably a great hill of limestone was 
removed from around it. The height from the feet 



3l8 MEMPHIS SIKKARAH GHIZEH. 

up is 140 feet. The head and neck are human; the 
body is leonine. The back is giving way consider- 
ably at one point, under the wear of time and the ele- 
ments. Different strata appear in the neck. The face 
has been greatly mutilated, evidently not by time, 
but by human force. It is said that mill stones for 
the little Arab hand-mills have been taken out of it; 
but I can scarcely credit this. The nose is all gone, 
and with it the lower face and mouth. Yet the 
cheek and the region of the eyes have retained some 
expression, and the forehead remains intact. 

It is said that the paved way to the pyramid lay 
between its paws, and that an altar stood beneath it 
from which incense ascended continually. The 
Sphinx overlooks the Valley of the Nile, but stands 
above the valley on the slope of the desert ridge that 
skirts it. The pyramids are still higher up this 
ascent, about half way, perhaps, toward its summit. 
This elevation of the base of the pyramids above the 
level Valley of the Nile I had overlooked in my read- 
ing, and was not quite prepared for it. 

Perhaps a general description of the country w^ill 
aid the conception of the exact situation of these 
gre?.t structures. The Nile, from the first cataract, 
which is at the northern boundry of Egypt, down- 
ward in its course to Cairo, flows through a narrow 
valley of flat land which is annually overflowed by 
it. This valley is of varying width, averaging, per- 
haps, ten miles. Along the edges of this valley, on 
both sides, rises a limestone bluff to a height, say, of 
400 feet or more. As you ascend the river toward 
the cataract this bluff is sometimes precipitous, but 
toward Cairo it is generally rounded off by great 



MEMPHIS — SIKKARAH — GHI2EH. 319 

sand-heaps, with here and there a precipitous mass 
of rock. From the summit of this bluff the desert 
stretches off on both sides in rocky and sandy undu- 
lations, naked and barren, as I have described. The 
desert sets in at the edge of the Nile overflow, so that 
the ascent of the bluff is desert. 

At Cairo the bluffs cease or recede, the Nile 
divides itself into two branches which separate more 
and more from each other until they reach the sea, 
and the overflowed land widens out more and more, 
until, at the lower extremity, on the Mediterranean, 
it is near 150 miles wide. This is the Delta. Begin- 
ning at Cairo it spreads out like a half-opened fan. 

Just above the apex of the Delta, on a bench of 
the desert, half way up to the point of its highest 
elevation, stand the three celebrated pyramids of 
Ghizeh — that of Cheops, that of Chephrem, and 
another much smaller. The two former are of about 
the same altitude, though Cheops is the more cele- 
brated, having a greater diameter at the base. They 
are of stone throughout. Pictures of them give the 
impression of a smooth surface, but this is a mistake. 
Every layer of stone is drawn in a little from the one 
below it, making successive benches of about two 
feet wide and two and a half or three feet high. 

There was another layer of stone on each bench^ 
with the corners beveled off after they were laid in 
their places so as to bring them to the angle of eleva- 
tion of the whole structure, thus making a smooth 
surface from top to bottom. But the Mohammedans 
made a quarry of the pyramids. The Caliphs took 
off the outer layer to build the citadel. Other pub- 
lic buildings — mosques especially — were built of the 



320 MEMPHIS — SIKKArAH — GMIZEM. 

same material. But after furnishing such a vast 
amount of building material, these monster piles of 
masonr)" remain apparently undiminished. Cheops 
has lost 20 or 30 feet from his apex and his casing, 
the smaller one is stripped of its casing, and Cheph- 
rem of only a part of its casing; over 100 feet of 
this, at the summit, remaining. 

The casing of the two larger ones was not of gran- 
ite, but of limestone. That of the smaller one is 
believed to have been of the red granite from the 
cataracts, and that highly polished. 

We ascended Cheops with the aid of four Arabs, 
paying five francs to the sheik, and then as much 
backsheesh to each attendant as he might be able to 
extort. Half-way up they begin their arts, and 
keep plying you till all is over. The ascent is some- 
what arduous, the more on account of the speed at 
which you are hurried along by your attendants. 
One holds each hand, going before you, and others 
lift you from below. If I had the job to do over, I 
would pay the Arabs to let me do it alone. Taking 
half an hour for it, and going slowly, it might be 
accomplished without great fatigue. 

The most arduous undertaking is the visit to the 
interior. You go downward, first, in a narrow pas- 
sage, then, dropping on all-fours, pass with some 
difficulty under the rocks, and commence the 
arduous ascent on an inclined plane. After a time 
you come to a place that seems impracticable, but 
your Arabs spring up with the agility of cats, seize 
your hands, and, giving you an assuring word, lift 
you over. Up, up again, until you come to a plat- 
form with a recess to the right in which there is a 



MEMPHIS — SIKKARAH — GHI2EH. 32 1 

very small well 100 feet deep. One of your attend- 
ants will propose to go to the bottom with a lighted 
candle in his hand, which he will do if you will stop 
to see it, but he will make it the ground of an 
unlimited demand for backsheesh. To the left is a 
passage leading to the chamber of the queen.4 To 
this H, penetrated — I did not. My rascally guides 
passed it without showing it to me. At last, in the 
very heart of the pyramid, half-way through, and 
about one-third of the way up, we stand in the cham- 
ber of the king. Here is the bla.ck granite sarcopha- 
gus. The mummy is gone, and has been for a thou- 
sand years at least. The lid is gone, and the edges 
have lost many a fragment, broken off, no doubt, by 
vandal visitors, and carried away as memorials of the 
place. 

The walls of this chamber are all of massive blocks 
of black granite — the same material, precisely, as the 
sarcophagi of the bulls in the caverns of Serapis. 
So it seemed to me, and I think I cannot be mis- 
taken. It is extremely hard, perfectly polished, and 
bears inscriptions that I know nothing about. This 
chamber is said to be 37 feet by 17, with a height of 
20 feet. 

Let us now return to the outside. Passing round 
Chephrem we saw where the limestone hill had been 
cut down to get a level area for its base. Thus a 
perpendicular face had been left in the rock. In this, 
tombs had been cut, some of which we entered. 
They are simply square, or nearly square, excava- 
tions in the side of the hill, with an entrance rather 
low, but of good size. 

We returned to Cairo by a carriage along a beau- 



322 MEMPHIS — SIKKARAH — GHIZEH. 

tiful avenue of trees — acacias, I believe — a distance 
of only six miles. The sun was low, the evening air 
was delicious, and we felt that we had done a faith- 
ful day's work. 

Wednesday we visited one of the palaces of the 
Khedive, w^ith the grounds, the American Consul 
having courteously procured us a permit. The 
grounds are beautiful, with abundant shrubbery and 
canals and fountains, with rustic bridges, rockeries, 
and pavilions. The place is new and gorgeous, with 
porticoes, columns, variegated marble pavements, 
furniture overlaid with gold, table tops of the finest 
marble in the richest mosaic, upholstered walls, 
splendid mirrors, and I know not what all. There 
are, in fact, two of these palaces in the same grounds, 
one used, I suppose, as a sort of summer house. 

In the principal one, at the head of the first flight 
of stairs, is a column of white marble about six feet 
high. On the top of it is a winged, laughing, angel, 
dropping a twisted wire from his hand. On the face 
of the column, below, is a human head and face. 
Circling over this is the legend, *' Efipuit coelo fuhnen, 
1750." The face is a good likeness of Benjamin 
Frankhn. 

Eleven miles from Cairo, down in the Delta, are 
the ruins of Heliopolis, the* ancient On. Here was 
the temple of the sun in which Joseph's father-in- 
low, the " Priest of On," officiated. In this immedi- 
ate vicinity was probably the *' land of Goshen." 
Here were those wonderful obelisks, now all gone 
but 07ie — gone to Rome, to Alexandria, to Paris. 
One now prostrate in the sand of Alexandria has 
been given to the English, and, if they think it worth 



MEMPHIS— SIKKARAH—GHIZEH. 323 

while, will be removed to London. One stands 
where it was first erected, perhaps at the very 
entrance of the Temple of the Sun. It looked down. 
on the marriage of Joseph. It was probably the 
oldest of these wonderful granite monoliths, and has 
been standing here 4,000 years. 

Our guide-book discouraged a visit here, but I 
would not have left Egypt v/ithout seeing this monu- 
ment of the earliest Egyptian art for any reasonable 
consideration. We took the ride late in the after- 
noon, and a delightful ride it was, through avenues 
of tamarisks and acacias, along a causeway elevated 
above the overflow. On either hand were the green 
wheat-fields ; and such wheat ! It rivals the finest 
fields of California. 

The ruins of Heliopolis are a mere quadrangular 
ridge of no great area — and the obelisk. There it 
stands in solitary grandeur. It is a granite monolith 
70 feet high, on a pedestal 6 feet high, but 25 feet of 
it are now under ground. On three sides there are 
numerous figures in basso relievo. On one side I 
counted nine birds, intended, probably, for hawks. 
There are two knives, an ax, and perhaps other 
instruments. One figure, I thought, was intended 
for a monkey, and one was certainly a snake. In 
these indentations a sort of insect has made its nest 
of mud. Indeed, on one side, the shaft is almost 
covered with this insect-work. The column is 
pointed at the top, and is of the same style as the 
one at Alexandria which is called Cleopatra's Needle. 
No doubt this latter, as well as those at Rome and 
Paris, were removed from this very place. 

Near by is the traditional fig-tree under which it is 



324 MEMPHIS — SIKKARAH GHIZEH. 

said the ,holy family rested when they arrived in 
Egypt. 

We had had a busy time in Cairo, and on Thurs- 
day morning left for Alexandria. Here we saw 
Cleopatra's Needle, and the twin shaft lying near it 
in the sand, the property of the British Government. 
The Needle is more lavishly decorated with sculp- 
ture than its mate at Heliopolis. We went also to 
see the catacombs, but were disappointed to find 
them of such small extent. We had reason after- 
ward to believe that our dragoman had fooled us, 
not taking us to the most extensive ones. But we 
saw the real Pompey's Pillar, a wonderful granite 
obelisk. It differs from that at Heliopolis in two 
respects: It :s round, while that is square; it is 
crowned with an expanding capital, while that is 
pointed. 

On Friday morning, at 9 o'clock, we set sail in the 
steamer Apollo, of the Austrian Lloyd line, for 
Jaffa. As we steamed away we had a fine view of 
the city. An unfinished and abandoned palace on 
the sands of the harbor appeared on one side, and 
the new palace on the other. Long lines of break- 
water lay above the surface. Pompey's Pillar loomed 
up in full view. As we turned a point, Cleopatra's 
Needle came in sight. Long lines of windmills, 
swinging their gigantic arms lazily around, lined the 
coast. At last all gradually faded in the distance, 
a.:i floated out of sight. 

Saturday morning found us at Port Said, the Med- 
iterranean mouth of the canal. It is a new place, 
and owes its existence to the canal. It can never be 
a place of any great importance. It is built on the 



FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM. 325 

sand thrown up in digging the canal. There is noth- 
ing of interest to be seen, unless it be a palatial hotel 
built by the Prince of Holland. Here we lay all 
day, and at five o'clock sailed again to awake at Jaffa 
in the mo-rning. So we are taking our first sail on 
the great Mediterranean Sea. 

Can it be possible that we shall sleep at Jerusalem 
to-morrow night? So Dr. DeHass, the American 
Consul at Jerusalem, who got on board at Port Said, 
assures us. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM. 

^-^UNDAY morning, April i, we awoke on the 
\^ steamer Apollo, in sight of the mountains of 
/-^ Judea, which swell up boldly to the height of 
3,000 feet. But we were yet a long way out at sea, 
and could see nothing but the outline of the ridge. 
As we approached we could see that a considerable 
extent of level country intervened between the shore 
and the mountains. The southern part of this low 
region was the Plain of Philistia — farther north it 
was the Plain of Sharon. 

As we neared the shore we could discern a line of 



326 FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM. 

sand-hills, very low, lying along the coast-line, just 
above the water. This sand-bank was broken at one, 
and only one point, by a hill rising somewhat boldly 
but to no great height. On this hill, and covering a 
considerable part of it — especially the northern end 
— is the town of Jaffa (Joppa), interesting to us for 
several reasons. It was to Joppa that Hiram sent 
the timber he had prepared in Mount Lebanon for 
the Temple, in floats ; here it was drawn out of the 
water, and then, by some means, transported to Jeru- 
salem, a distance of about thirty-six miles. It was 
here that Dorcas lived and died — the good Dorcas, 
who set that example of active beneficence in the 
Church which has since been followed by so many 
godly women. But, above all, here it was that the 
gospel took its new departure for the conquest of the 
world. Here, on the housetop, by the side of the 
sea, Peter was prepared for his call to the Gentile, 
Cornelius, at Cesarea. From this moment the word 
of life was preached to men of all nations. 

At 9:30 in the morning we landed at a flight of 
steps in the sea-wall, within a few rods of the site of 
the old tan-yard of Simon. This site is identified 
beyond any doubt. It is the only place by the '' sea- 
side " where there is water for the uses of a tannery. 
The removal of some old stone-works recently has 
laid bare the very vats in which the tanning was 
done. The first thing v/e did, before we went to our 
hotel, we visited this place. There we saw the foun- 
tain of living water, and ascended to the roof of the 
house which stands, if not on the very spot occupied 
by that of Simon the tanner, at least very near it. 
There we stood where Peter prayed and fell into a^ 



FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM. 32/ 

trance, and looked up into those very heavens from 
which he saw the great sheet let down. Before us 
was the '' Great Sea," stretching away to the West, 
the highway by which the gospel was to be carried 
to the distant nations to whom God was at that 
moment preparing to send it. It was worth a voyage 
around the world to stand a moment on the flat roof 
of that house — yet we had to pay backsheesh to a 
Mussulman for the privilege. 

Our hotel was in the '' colony." This is a settle- 
ment of German Christians at Jaffa. There are two 
or three of these settlements of Germans who look 
for the personal coming of Christ to reign a thousand 
years on earth, fixing the capital of his millennial 
reign in Jerusalem. They were preceded by a com- 
pany of Americans, whose leader proved to be 
worthless, and whose plans were so poorly laid that 
they came to the very door of starvation. Many of 
them got home on charity, and their enterprise came 
to nothing. But these Germans, if they are actuated 
by a fanatical belief, yet show the genuine German 
good sense and thrift. They have a good hotel 
which, I doubt not, they make profitable. They 
also run a line of hacks from Jaffa to Jerusalem, over 
the macadamized road which has been made within 
the last five or six years. Before that all travel was 
done on horses, mules, or camels, as it still is every- 
where else in Palestine ; for this is the only road 
practicable for wheeled vehicles anywhere in the 
country. 

Near the hotel is the school house of Miss Bald- 
win, an American lady, a native of Virginia, who had 
a school for many years at Athens, but has been 



328 FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM. 

now for several years here. I think she makes her 
school self-supporting. She is a member of the 
Episcopal Church, and does her work in a missionary 
spirit. There is a clergyman of the Church of 
England here who has a service every Sunday after- 
noon in her school room. By his request I preached 
for him. Can you doubt that the text was in the 
tenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles ? 

There is another Christian lady who has a school 
here — Miss Arnot, from England. Having some 
means, she came here, bought land, and built a 
spacious and substantial stone house, in which she 
carries on a school for girls — Miss Baldwin's being for 
boys. 

Four of us got a carriage, and prepared for an early 
start on Monday for Jerusalem. At six o'clock we 
were on the road. For a mile or more we pass over the 
slightly elevated sandy strip that skirts the sea. On 
each side of the road over this strip there are hedges 
of gigantic prickly pear, behind which are the won- 
derful orange groves of Jaffa. Here are produced 
the largest oranges, by far, that I ever saw. We 
have one in our room now which H. gathered in the 
grove of a hospitable native, and which measures 
sixteen inches in circumference by the tape-line. 
Soon we leave hedges and orange groves behind, 
and are fairly out upon the Plain of Sharon. Where 
we enter it is perfectly level, and there are level 
areas here and there throughout its extent ; but for 
the most part it is gently undulating, becoming more 
and more uneven as you approach the mountains, 
until, at the valley of Ajalon, at the base of the great 
Judean range, the valley ridges are themselves bald 



FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM. 329 

and rocky. There are many fields of wheat In the 
valley now just well-headed. The crop is a very good 
one, though by no means equal to that of the Nile 
Valley. We have seen a little Indian corn. Many 
fields are just now under the plow for the water- 
melon, which, we are told, is exceptionally fine here, 
and is raised in great quantities. 

The first place of note which we passed was the 
traditional Tomb of Dorcas, Well out in the plain, 
perhaps five miles from Jaffa, is the '' Experimental 
Farm," carried on by Jews, who here instruct young 
men in the most approved modes of farming. It is 
hoped that this institution will greatly improve the 
agriculture of this country. The Plain of Sharon, 
like the valley of the Ganges, has been in constant 
cultivation for 4,000 years, without manure and with- 
out rest. What wonderful resources there must be in 
the soil ! It is extremely yellow — a Missouri farmer 
would say, '^ It is like an ash-bank " — so that the 
rude native plow prepares it very well. Soon we 
see a tower, off to our left, which marks the site of 
Lydda, which '' was nigh to Joppa," to which Peter 
came when he was passing '* throughout all quarters " 
— where he healed the paralytic Eneas, ''which had 
kept his bed eight years," and from whence he was 
called by *'the saints" to Joppa, where the good 
Dorcas died. It is about twelve miles from Joppa, 
About the same distance out is Ramleh, immediately 
on ouf road. Here is a very nice hotel, kept by one 
of the Germany of th§ *' Temple "-^— for that i^ thq 
name th<? Ciernmri colonists ha¥^ giv^Jli tbpij- As.^ocia^ 
tion, Ramldi la a town oi |,qoo inhabitants, Wg 
n^%^i pur horm^ her^ m hmtf m4> ftfolie^ ftrowgfe 



330 FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM. 

the city, where we saw an old church built by the 
Crusaders, since turned into a mosque. The bazaar 
presented a lively scene. Some shops had pretty 
good stocks, and, upon the whole, there was as much 
appearance of thrift as is usually SQQn in Oriental 
villages. Here, as in Jaffa, the houses are all of 
stone, giving the place a very solid but somewhat 
gloomy appearance. There is the inevitable *' tradi- 
tion " here, for they claim that this is the very 
Arimathea where " Joseph of Ariraathea " was born. 
Some intelligent men are disposed to regard this 
tradition with favor, but others affirm that it was a 
fabrication of the 13th century. There is a tower 
here which is a very prominent object, but the 
mosque in connection with which it was built has 
disappeared. The summit of it commands a large 
and fine landscape. 

Pharaoh took Gezer from the Philistines, and pre- 
sented it to his daughter, the wife of Solomon. 
There are extensive ruins here, which are partly in 
sight from our road, but too far aw^ay for us to take 
time to visit them. Near the road on the left side is 
the village of Amwas^ mentioned in the Apocrypha, 
I. Mace. iii. 40. 

The road lies very near the boundary between the 
tribe of Dan and Philistia. Not very far to our 
right Samson played his part, at once so noble and 
so ignoble. Ekron is only four or five miles from 
Ramleh, 

Twenty miles out we reached the Valley of AJ^lon. 
Up to the rjorth-ea§t, g Ijttle ^my, ar§ Bethhgron and 
Gibon, Herg ill§ fiv§ feings, froni ih^ §outhern 
fegions about Hebron were in carnp, vyh[ei| Joslau^. 



FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM. 33 I 

" ascended from Gilgal, he and all the people of war 
with him, and all the mighty men of valor," and 
** came upon them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal 
all night." He "slew them with a great slaughter 
at Gihon, and chased them along the way that goeth 
up to Bethhoron." To add to their dismay, God 
smote them with stones from heaven, so that they 
were more who perished by the hailstones than by 
the sword. 

But it was a crisis in the conquest of the country, 
and it was necessary that this victory should be 
decisive. Up to this time the Israelites had secured 
only a precarious footing in the central and eastern 
portions of the country. This victory would be fruit- 
less unless it opened the south, and the Plain of 
Sharon, to them. Then '' Joshua spake to the Lord," 
and GcMi gave him power over the planetary system, 
so that '' he said, in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand 
thou still upon Gibeon, and thou, Moon, in the Valley 
of Ajalon." Here on the spot one could see the rela- 
tive positions of the sun and moon. 

Through this long day, that seemed as if it would 
never close, the people pursued their enemies, and at 
last captured and slew the five *' kings of the Amo- 
rites." This gave them the entire southern part of 
Palestine, except Philistia. To all human appear- 
ance it seems that their destiny hung upon a complete 
overthrow and extermination of their enemies in that 
battle. 

Passing up out of the Valley of Ajalon we enter a 
narrow mountain gorge, and continue in it for some 
miles, passing the castle of the Abu Gosh, a sheik, 
who, in the early part of this century, exacted heavy 



332 FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM. 

toll of all travelers, and especially pilgrims, on 
their way to Jerusalem. For many years he and his 
tribe were a terror to the country. His little stone 
castle is situated at a point where the gorge through 
which the road passes is so narrow that the traveler, 
once under the range of his guns, could find no way 
of escape. 

As we ascended the mountain we saw the Pales- 
tine oak, the terebinth, the tamarisk, and the carob- 
tree. This latter bears a long seed-pod, the seed 
being much like a bean. This bean is eaten by the 
people. We saw large quantities of it in the market 
at Jaffa. It is supposed that it was the pod of this 
tree that our Lord referred to in the parable of the 
prodigal son as the ''husks which the swine did eat." 

After a toilsome ascent we reached the summit of 
the range, from which the Plain of Sharon, and of 
Philistia, come into full view, and even the sand-bed 
on the shore, and Jaffa, and the waters of the Medi- 
terranean sea beyond. 

Still farther on we came to what was in the oldest 
times called Kirjath-Baal, and later Kirjath-Jearim. 
This is believed to be the Emmaus of the New Tes- 
tament, and therefore has a very special interest for 
Christians. 

At about this point the Neby Sainzvil appears — - 
Mount Samuel, as we would call it. There is a tomb 
on the summit of it, which is called the tomb of 
Samuel. It is believed to be the site of the ancient 
Mizpeh, and the principal seat of Authority when 
Samuel judged Israel. It is said to be the most ele- 
vated summit in all this range of mountains, and is in 
sight pretty much all the time from the neighbor- 



FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM. 333 

hood of Emmaus until we are within a mile of the 
city. 

Some distance farther on, in a very pretty valley, 
is the convent of St. John the Baptist, a mile or so to 
the right of the road. It is on the traditional birth- 
place of John the Baptist, in the " hill country of 
Judea." There is no doubt of its being in Judea, 
and a " hill country T This latter is very plain to be 
seen. But the tradition as to the exact birthplace of 
the Baptist is altogether arbitrary. One might as 
well undertake to find the grave of Moses as the 
birthplace of John. 

There is another tradition which locates the death 
of Goliath in this same little valley, and this is prob- 
ably true. At any rate, the dry brook which runs 
through it has millions of stones in its bed, just the 
size for the sling, and I myself picked up three or 
four smooth ones, just the sort to kill a giant with. 
One that I got I imagine is the exact fellow of that 
one which brought down the Philistine braggart who 
had " defied the armies of the living God." 

We were now within four miles of Jerusalem, the 
city of the Great King. It seemed to us a strange 
thing to be here. H. remarked upon the fact that 
we were approaching the city in a pleasant carriage, 
while our Lord made his journeys to it on foot. A 
strange feeling took possession of me — a sense of 
my unspeakable unworthiness. I did indeed ''blush 
in all things to abound — the servant above his Lord." 

The approach to the city from this side gives no 
view of it beforehand. You see nothing within the 
walls, scarcely, until you enter. But outside of the 
walls are many new buildings of an excellent class. 



334 FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM. 

They have been erected within a few years by Jews 
who have come here from Europe. H. and I chose to 
enter the city only in each other's company, and on 
foot. We approached slowly, and, I beheve, both 
of us in the spirit of prayer. Even after we passed 
through the gate of the lofty wall we could see noth- 
ing but the nearest buildings, for on this side we 
were on the highest ground in the city. Yet the 
first thing we saw, just within the gate, was the 
Tower of David, no doubt the oldest building here. 
One part of it is of the peculiar beveled stone which 
was the work of the old Phoenicians. This part of 
the Tower — the old citadel — is believed by intelli- 
gent archaeologists to date from the reign of Solo- 
mon. It is known that Titus spared it when he took 
the city. Near this is the Mediterranean Hotel, 
where we lodged. So we are living on Mount Zion ! 
This is the very hill which the Jebusites held for so 
many centuries after all the rest of the country had 
been occupied by the chosen people, and from which 
David dislodged them at last, taking possession of it 
as the capital of his kingdom. Here Solomon built 
his splendid palace. On this hill was all the pag- 
eantry of his magnificent reign. 

At the very foot of the east wall of our hotel is the 
*' pool of Hezekiah," closely surrounded by houses 
on all sides, the massive stone walls of which spring 
up out of the very water of the pool. 

We were only just introduced into our room when 
Dr. DeHass, the American Consul, took us on to the 
flat roof of the hotel, to point out to us the various 
localities of the city. Immediately before us, and on 
the other side of the city, was the great mosque of 



FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM. 335 

Omar, occupying the very site of the old Temple. 
To the left, and much nearer to us, was the Church 
of the Holy Sepulcher, supposed to cover the ground 
of the crucifixion, and the tomb of our Lord. 
Beyond all rose the Mount of Olives. 

The city itself did not answer to my preconcep- 
tion, but the Mount of Olives did, almost exactly. 
That bold swell beyond the Kedron was just what I 
had had in my imagination from childhood. It did 
not seem new to me, but like a piece of landscape 
long familiar. I could scarcely restrain my tears as 
I imagined the Master climbing its steep ascent, in 
the evening, by one of the paths before me, making 
his way from the midst of the evil-minded men that 
had sneered at his doctrines, and sought to entangle 
him with questions, to find peace and rest in the 
bosom of the lovely family of Bethany. 

It was too late to undertake anything, the sun 
being now nearly at his setting, but on the following 
day we had an early breakfast, and, refusing all offers 
of a guide, left the city by the Jaffa gate, and fol- 
lowed the wall around on the west and north side till 
we came to the valley of Jehoshaphat, which lies 
along the east side of the city. Descending some 
distance along the valley, we crossed the brook Ked- 
ron on a bridge, near which on our left was the chapel 
of the tomb of the Virgin. This chapel lies chiefly 
under ground. It was greeted in the time of the 
Crusades, The tradition pretends that l^oth the Virgin 
and her parents ^r^ buried here, and alsQ that it 
covers th^ very place ^het'g pur big^sed 3svfour lay 
when, his gwea"^ was as it were great drpp^ pf !?}99d^ 
fiilling to the ground^ 



336 FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM. 

The Garden of Gethsemane, or at least the sup- 
posed site of it, is a little higher up as you ascend 
out of this valley upon the slope of Olivet. The gar- 
den is inclosed by a stone wall, and kept by a man 
whom I took to be a monk. In fact, there are two 
inclosures, one belonging to the Latin, and the other 
to the Greek Church. That in possession of the 
Romanists is very well kept, being cultivated in flow- 
ers that grow in small beds, with walks between in 
every direction. But I was pained to see images 
representing the sufferings of the Saviour in their 
various stages. That part which is in the hands of 
the Greeks has no special care taken of it. 

There is good reason to believe that these grounds 
are properly located, though of course the exact 
boundaries of the garden cannot be determined. I 
have not the least doubt that we stood within the 
very precincts of the Agony. It was a solemn 
moment, and we felt it to be so. The very aged 
olive trees which stand in the inclosure help the 
imagination in the effort to make the scene real. It 
was in this place, on this comparatively level plot of 
ground, at the foot of the Mount of Olives, that 
Jesus left the three disciples about a stone's cast, 
and, falling prostrate on his face, uttered that bitter 
cry to the Father, *' If it be possible, let this cup pass 
from me." It was here that that $upremQ act of 
Submission took place. "Not my will, but thine, be 
done." It was here that, with his hun)an hQart 
breaking for sympathy, he returned to the three to 
find them, a^kep, ^- What ! goyld fQ not watch with 
mo QUO hQu.r?-' Ho | thou blessed ¥ktim» Htrs in 
th§ '*gMAm of th§ oil pttm'* mmt th^u imi Ite 



^. FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM. 33/ 

wine press alone. Of the people none shall be with 
thee — none shall help thee. Only an angel shall 
come and strengthen thee. Was it superstition that 
prompted us to bring away some pebbles from the 
place ? 

From the garden we ascended the slope of Olivet, 
by the most northerly path, which is the easiest 
ascent. At the summit we turned southward to the 
point which was directly " over against " the Temple, 
and there paused upon the brow of the mount. What 
a view of the city this point commands! The side 
nearest you is the lowest, and the whole city sweeps 
up an inclined plane, from the Mosque of Omar to 
the Tower of David. I say an ijtclined plane^ for so 
it is now, substantially, the gorges which divided the 
different sections formerly being filled up. From the 
brow of the Mount of Olives the Temple was in full 
view from the base up, as it was on this side of the 
city, and nothing intervenes to break the line of 
vision. The Mosque of Omar, which now occupies 
the site of the Temple, is in full view, from the foun- 
dation to the dome. 

At the point from which we gazed upon the city 
we must have been within a few yards of the place 
where our Saviour sat, surrounded by the disciples, 
when he wept over the city. Nothing could have 
been a more natural topic than that upon which the 
discipleg remarked — the great stones and the stupen- 
dous buildings before them. He saw the ivigked 
hum^an life that wag compre§sg4 within its wal^ ^n4 
all it^ history of ^m^ at ong§ \ jif §,awj also, th§ swif^ 
coming judgment! pf God upoi| the place, Ii> the 
jcopo jQf .hi| vii^.fen wf^/e thf! R.om|in ;jegi(?iif3, .tt^^iS'-^'i 



338 FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM. 

siege, the dreadful famine, the assault, and the streets 
red with human blood. No wonder that he wept, 
and exclaimed, O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! 

On the summit of Olivet we ascended the tower 
of a mosque that stands there, and had a grand view 
of the valley of Jehoshaphat, and of the city. I 
have said that the city rises from its eastern wall in 
an inclined plane. It is not to be inferred that there 
are no inequalities of surface, but only that they are 
so slight as not to be observed in a distant view, and 
so slight as to be nothing compared with the deep 
ravines and sharp hills of the early times. The rub- 
bish of ages has filled up the ravines in some places 
to a depth of I know not how many feet. 

We had from the Tower of Olivet, also, our first 
view of the valley of the Jordan, and of the Dead 
Sea, with the mountains of Moab beyond. The 
Dead Sea seems to be almost at your feet, though it 
is twenty miles away. With a good glass the view is 
very distinct. 

In this mosque there is an open court, in which 
there is a small octagonal chapel, surmounted by a 
dome. This, they say, covers the spot where the 
Lord ascended. The floor is paved with square 
stones, laid on the surface of the rock. Near the 
centre one square of the pavement is wanting, leav- 
ing the natural rock below exposed. In this rock 
we saw an indentation, which they say is the foot- 
print made by the Lord when he went up. An 
indentation in the artificial and modem pavement, 
they affirm, ^Iso, was jpadc by Im §t§.f[ at the same 
moment I 

yV}]eg w^ h^a §atisfie4 9UF^e!ye§ ^yith th^ yiew^ 



^ROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM, 33$ 

east and west, from this summit, we started over the 
brow of the mountain to find Bethany. We had no 
guide, but followed our own instincts. After we had 
gone down some distance on the eastern slope, we 
began to be apprehensive that we must have made 
some mistake. A village on a hill beyond seemed 
too far away. Besides, it was not related to the 
Mount of Olives, as we supposed Bethany to be. 
Still we pressed on, and in a few minutes came upon 
the object of our search, suddenly. We were just 
upon it before we saw it. Still I, at least, was disap- 
pointed. I had never thought of Bethany as being 
so deep down in a mountain gorge — so shut in by 
mural walls. I had always thought of it as being 
pleasantly situated, well up on the eastern face of the 
Mount of Olives. But we found it hid away, as one 
might say, in a ravine. Here we met a native, ready 
to show us Lazarus's house and tomb. Of course 
we paid backsheesh, and of course, also, we knew that 
these traditional places were, a thousand chances to 
one, not the actual sites. But, unsightly as this poor 
village is, it was a pleasure to see the spot where 
that family resided who were so dear to the Master. 
We returned by the more circuitous road made for 
carriages, which crosses two ridges ere we reach the 
cityo The sun was warm, but the air extremely cool. 
We had been on foot all the morning, and it was 
now near noon. There were patches of cloud upon 
the sky, and the spaces between were wondrously 
blue and beautiful. Along this path, no doubt, 
our Saviour had walked. I had him strangely asso- 
ciated in my mind with the gray olive-trees that 
are still found in considerable numbers on the moun* 



340 A W££K IN JERUSALEM. 

tain. Filled with thoughts of Him, of his grace, 
and his agony, we sat down upon the flat surface of 
a rock, on that Olivet on which he had sat, and read 
the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of St. John. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

A WEEK IN JERUSALEM. 

IN COMPANY WITH Rev. Dr. DeHass, the 
American Consul at Jerusalem, Dr. Schaff, and 
several other gentlemen, we visited the " Tombs 
of the Kings." This is an instance of the arbitrary 
manner in which localities are designated here. The 
name of a place is not ahvays misleading, but it is 
more frequently so than otherwise, perhaps. At 
least it is very often so. It is certain that the kings 
were not buried in these tombs. But they are full of 
interest, both on account of their antiquity and of 
their remarkable workmanship. True, they are not 
so old as many other things about the city, but they 
probably date back to about the beginning of the 



A WEEK IN JERUSALEM. 341 

Christian era. They are hewed out of a hill of solid 
rock. First, there is an open court, say thirty feet 
square, quarried out near the base of the hill, with 
perpendicular walls, say twenty feet high on the 
upper side, and eight or ten on the lower. Into the 
hill, on the upper side of this open court, a portico 
was hewn, about fifteen feet on the wall, and pene- 
trating the rock seven or eight feet. Two columns, 
equidistant from each other and from the ends of the 
portico, were left standing as supports of the rock 
overhead. From the north end of the portico you 
enter through a small door into an inner court. Here 
you must have candles, for you are now in an apart- 
ment cut into the living rock, with no opening but the 
small, low door through which you entered. This 
chamber is scarcely twenty feet square, and commu- 
nicates with another of about the same dimensions. 
Around the chambers the niches are cut into the 
rock, into which the dead were introduced. These 
niches, I should think, were two feet wide, two and 
a half high, and penetrate the rock about six feet. 
One I noticed which was differently placed, the 
opening running back about two feet, and then the 
receptacle for the body cut transversely so as to lie 
parallel with the wall of the chamber. Over every 
door and every niche the rock was cut in the shape of 
an arch, the curve being perfect, and the surface cut 
very smooth. The dimensions I give as they im- 
pressed me. I made no measurements; There may, 
also, be some inaccuracy of detail, as I made no notes 
on the spot, but write from memory. But my descrip- 
tion is substantially correct — whether it is very per- 
spicuous or not, I can scarcely venture to say. 



34^ A Week in Jerusalem. 

The doors to the inner chambers were stone 
slabs swinging on projections, top and bottom, at 
one side, like rude gates I have seen, with the outer 
frame on one side projecting into a socket in the sill 
below and extending into some support provided for 
it above. The outer door was closed by a slab held 
to its place by a massive stone placed against it. 
This stone itself was displaced and replaced by an 
ingenious contrivance that I cannot describe. 

Tombs were often, if not generally, made in the 
rock in the sides of hills. All the hills about Jeru- 
salem are of limestone, and generally very precipi- 
tous. Very often the edge of a stratum stands per- 
pendicular on the side of a hill. Very few tombs 
are as elaborate as that which I have described. A 
plain one could be made with comparatively little 
labor, and, where labor was so cheap, at small cost. 
The stone would only require to be blocked out, and 
the seams between the strata would direct the line of 
clearage for floor and ceiling. The opening would 
be narrow — a mere door — the interior being of the 
dimensions which the proprietor might desire. 
When the body was placed within, a slab, neatly 
fitted to its place, was set up against the door, hav- 
ing an epitaph cut upon it. Against this slab a 
heavy stone was rolled to keep it in place. 

In such a tomb, no doubt, Lazarus was buried at 
Bethany, and when the slab was removed Jesus 
called to the dead man, commanding him, not to rise 
up, but to come forth, and he came foith, bound 
hand and foot with grave-clothes. How natural all 
this seems to one who has seen the old tombs here. 

How L have realized here, what I knew before, the 



A WEEK IN JERUSALEM. 343 

meaning of the statement about the new tomb which 
Joseph had hewjz in the rock, into which the body of 
our Lord was laid. It was cut into the rock in one 
of the steep hillsides near the city. A heavy stone 
was placed against the door. *' Who shall roll us 
away the stone ?" said the heart-broken women, as 
they were on their way, bearing sweet spices — prob- 
ably in vessels on their heads, as women are seen 
every moment here, now, carrying whatever they 
have to carry thus — to embalm his body. But we 
must pass to other topics. 

It is only a few years since a man was walking 
along the north wall, on the outside of the city, east 
of the Damascus Gate, when his dog started some 
small game v/hich disappeared through a small open- 
ing at the foot of the wall. The dog entered after it 
and was gone a long time, coming back at last out 
of breath, as if after a considerable chase. This 
opening is on the side of the hill on which the Tem- 
ple stood. The hint which the dog had given was 
acted upon. The place was entered and a cave 
of immense extent found to be there — a cave of 
which no one had any knowledge. At first on enter- 
ing there is a considerable descent, after which the 
floor is horizontal, or nearly so, but very much 
broken by mounds. On and on and on it extends 
and certainly reaches in under the Temple area. 

A most remarkable cave it is, but is it a cave? 
Look at the wall — there are singular marks on it. 
Ah ! there is no mistaking them— they are the marks 
of tools, and they are everywhere. Is this a quarry ? 
There can be no doubt about it. And these piles on 
pile? of small pieces of stone lying here and ther^ 



344 -A- WEEK IN JERUSALEM. 

loose, what are they? Bring a Hght and let us 
examine them. They are chippings from the rough 
ashlers as they were shaped by the maso7ts. The 
edges are as sharp as they were the day they were 
chiseled off. 

This, then, is not only a quarry, but something 
more — it is a mason's workshop, in which the rough 
stone was dressed for use. 

Can it be that this is the quarry where the stone 
of which the first Temple was built was procured ? 
To my mind this is the most natural way to account 
for it. The fact that the stone which was gotten out 
here was evidently dressed here^ also, is in farther 
support of this view. For it is expressly stated that 
every stone was prepared for its place in the wall 
beforehand, so that in erecting the Temple the 
stroke of the hammer was never heard. Is it not 
most likely that a shaft communicated with this 
quarry from the Temple area, or near it, the stones 
already dressed and fitted each for its place, being 
there elevated by machinery to be laid into the wall? 
So think intelligent men who have examined into 
the facts with great care, and the conclusion seems 
very reasonable to me. 

We went into this wonderful quarry a long way, 
but not to the end of it. It does not all lie in a con- 
tinuous line, but straggles about a good deal, as a 
qyarry worked by many men would inevitably do. 
I brought away some pf the chippings, which I 
expec:t tQ take home with me. They IoqI^ alnaogt as 
if they )aa4 be^ii §-aiteeri pff fom ths ypygU &§Wer 
yesterday, 

Thi^ quarry itrjk^f n>€ %% taking hlgk rank &Jtii0|)| 



A WEEK IN JERUSALEM. 345 

the most remarkable things In which this city of 
wonders abounds. It is Hkely that the rock taken 
out of it sufficed not only for the Temple but for all 
the magnificent structures erected by the opulent 
and luxurious son of David. Imagine the scene of 
toil that must have been witnessed in this subterra- 
neous workshop. Hundreds of men must have 
been engaged at once. These dark, cavernous soli- 
tudes must have been luminous with torches, while 
the click of a thousand hammers stunned the ear. 
While vast multitudes were hewing cedar in Mount 
Lebanon, other multitudes here were preparing 
''great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, 
to lay the foundation of the house.'* Here were 
a portion, also, of the " chief of Solomon's offi- 
cers," *' which ruled over the people that wrought 
in the work." There were Tyrians and Hebrews 
mixed together here, for *' Solomon's builders and 
Hiram's builders did hew them, and the stone- 
squarers.'* So perfectly was the work done that, 
"the house, when it was in building, was built of 
stone made ready before it was brought thither ; so 
that there was neither hammer, nor ax, nor any tool 
of iron heard in the house while it was in building." 
And even to-day the work of the Phoenician masons 
is seen and identified in Jerusalem. It is known by 
the peculiar style of beveled stone which always 
indicates the presence of that people. Some of it 
stands now where it was plaoed 2,900 years ago, and 
many stones which have been recovered from old 
ruins have been built into new walls, where they pro- 
claim to this day the presence of Hiram's masons, 
aiding, and, indeed, directing in the work. 



34^ A WEEK IN JE:Rt)SALEM. 

But the center of chief attraction to the Christian 
visitor here is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. 
It is a building of very great proportions, and covers 
the traditional sites of the crucifixion and the burial 
of our Lord. Modern criticism has called in ques- 
tion, and, indeed, sometimes repudiated this tradi- 
tion. Robinson, especially, who is widely received 
as authority in matters pertaining to the topography 
of Jerusalem, reached very definite conclusions 
adverse to the claims of this particular locality. 
But excavations made since have tended strongly to 
discredit some of his theories, and go to strengthen 
the drift of tradition, which always, so far as we 
know, pointed to this place. It is within the walls 
of the present city, and Robinson's investigations led 
him to suppose that it was within the walls as they 
stood at the time of the crucifixion. Recent discov- 
eries, however, tend to the opposite conclusion — that 
this particular section of the city was outside of the 
wall as it then stood. This is a vital point, as we 
know Christ suffered ^^ without the gate T 

Those who discredit this locality affirm that the 
tradition in its favor originated with the finding of 
the "true cross" here, and hold that, having origin- 
ated in such a fraud, it is of no value, and cannot 
command any credit among reasonable men. But 
those of the other party affirm that the tradition did 
not originate with the pious fraud about " the true 
cross," but existed from the earliest times, and that 
for the very reason that Christ was known to have 
been crucified here, Hadrian built his heathen tem- 
ple on the same spot, with a view to dishonor it in 
the eyes of his followers, and so insult and humiliate 



A WEEK IN JERUSALEM. 34/ 

them. Farther, they maintain that for the reason 
that this was known to be the place, Helena looked 
here for the cross, and either pretended to find it, or 
was herself imposed upon by others. For myself, I 
confess that I am not sufficiently learned in these 
matters to enter into the controversy, having never 
devoted a day to the investigation. The little 
inquiry I have made here inclines me to accept this 
locality. The principal reason against it, so far as I 
can see, is found in the deplorable superstition and 
fanaticisms that cluster about the place. We have 
happened here in the week of the Greek Easter, and 
have seen this fanaticism in its most revolting fea- 
tures, mitigated somewhat by two circumstances. 
The first is that, this year, owing to some difference 
in the manner of reckoning from the full moon, the 
Greek Easter falls a week later than the Latin, so 
that the collisions and confusion that sometimes 
occur have been avoided, as their parades came on 
different days; and the second, that the anticipated 
war prevented the very large influx of pilgrims that 
are in attendance usually at the Easter solemnities. 
These pilgrims come in great numbers, and from the 
most remote regions. 

But what we have seen is sufficiently revolting. 
On Thursday the Armenians had the farce oi foot- 
washing. The Patriarch enacted the part of the 
Lord, and the Bishops represented the twelve apos- 
tles. They occupied a platform, erected for the pur- 
pose, in the paved area in front of the Church of the 
Holy Sepulcher. The acting was very poor, so I 
thought. But, as I was never present at a theatrical 
performance, I must be understood to be a poorly 



34^ A WEEK IN JERUSALEM. 

qualified critic of the drama. The actors showed 
but little solemnity. One of them came upon the 
stage hurriedly, munching the last mouthful of his 
breakfast, and I saw several of them smiling. They 
were constantly looking around, scanning the crowd 
of spectators. There were a great many present, 
but the number of pilgrims being so greatly reduced 
this year, the crowd was not so great as usual, nor 
the enthusiasm up to its usual pitch. After the feet 
were washed, some handkerchiefs were handed up to 
be dipped in the water, after which bunches of 
flowers were dipped in the basin and the w^ater 
sprinkled on the people. I had been told that there 
would be a great excitement, but was disappointed. 
There was, however, one scene at the last which 
answered my expectations. On a wall, in the direc- 
tion of the Mount of Olives, an olive branch of con- 
siderable size was fixed upon a projecting platform, 
eight or ten feet above a projecting pavement. So 
soon as the ceremonies were ended there was a gen- 
eral scuffle for the possession of some part of this 
branch. All the twigs were broken off in a twink- 
ling, and then there was such a contest over the 
lower part, which seemed to be six or eight feet 
long, and was too large to be broken, as would 
amaze you. As many men as could get their hands 
on it were pulling and wrenching away at it, shout- 
ing and yelling as if their life depended on getting 
possession. The last I saw of it, it was going slowly 
up the street, a crowd pulling with all their might, 
some this way and some that I suppose the 
strongest got it at last. I am told that pieces of this 



A WEEK IN JERUSALEM. 349 

olive branch are of inestimable value — for healing 
the sick ! 

To-day we have been to witness the celestial fire 
issuing from the Holy Sepulcher. By the interposi- 
tion of our Consul we got a good position in the gal- 
lery of the rotunda of the church. Immediately 
under this rotunda is the chapel of the Sepulcher, 
which stands immediately over what is supposed to 
be the Tomb of our Lord. In the area around this 
an excited multitude was assembled when we 
arrived, about two hours in advance of the time, 
which was two o'clock p. M. Many persons had been 
there from seven in the morning to secure and hold 
good positions. The Greeks occupied one-half of 
the area, and the Armenians the other. The latter 
were quiet, but such carryings on as took place 
amongst the Greeks I never saw nor imagined. It 
was like bedlam. They were massed together as 
thick as they could stand, except that a space was 
kept clear by soldiers present for the purpose. The 
space was necessary for the performance. Near the 
round opening in the side of the chapel out of 
which the fire was to proceed, the crowd was 
thickest. They were clapping their hands, jumping 
up and down, striking their heads with their hands, 
striking themselves against each other; some were 
standing on the shoulders of others, jumping about 
and falling and rising up again in the most remarka- 
ble way ; all shouting, screaming, yelling at the top 
of their voices. Sometimes every one seemed to be 
shouting on his own account, and then again there 
was something like a chorus and response in unison. 
Once or twice there was a lull in the uproar, so that 



350 A WEEK IN JERUSALEM. 

nothing would be heard but the thousands of people 
assembled under the great dome in conversation, and 
even that was ^' like the noise of many waters." I 
could think of nothing but that as a comparison. 

Hours passed, and the excitement became more 
intense. With many it was frenzy. They were 
raving around like madmen. Sometimes, when the 
soldiers would interfere to keep them in their places, 
the devotee would caress them, patting their cheeks, 
evidently with a view to conciliate them lest he 
should be forcibly removed from the church. The 
•soldiers behaved with most exemplary patience, but 
they were obliged to eject some. As the frenzy rose 
to madness, the soldiers stood in a line with their 
backs to the people, in order to keep the necessary 
space clear. Though they stood against the surge of 
the tumultuous human sea with all their force, the 
line was several times broken, when officers would 
rush in, armed v/ith batons, with which they threat- 
ened the heads of the mad multitude ; and when 
threats failed they were obliged to resort to blows. 
This they never seemed to do except in the most 
extreme emergency. At last banners were borne 
into the area. Over one of these a fearful scuffle 
took place as to who should carry it. It was terrific, 
and the soldiers were obliged to interfere in a forcible 
manner. When the banner was at last elevated it 
displayed a terrible rent. Then came the priests in 
their satin robes, covered with gold brocade-work, 
who followed the banners three times around the 
chapel. At the end of this procession the fire was 
to appear. Then came a job for the military. They 
had to open a way through the mob for the Patri- 



A WEEK IN JERUSALEM. 3^1 

arcli to pass to the entrance of the chapel. The 
mass seemed as if it were glued together, and had to 
be wrenched asunder by main strength. At last the 
supreme moment came. The Patriarch entered the 
chapel of the Holy Sepulcher, and was shut in there 
alone in the Tomb of the Lord. He had been 
examined closely in the presence of witnesses to 
prove that he carried no match nor other means of 
lighting a fire. This precaution taken, to assure the 
genuineness of the miracle, a suspense that seemed 
awful followed upon the disappeance of the vener- 
able, white-bearded patriarch. The interval seemed 
long; but at last, suddenly, fire streamed out of the 
orifice on each side of the chapel. A scene followed 
which beggars description. Men rushed forward, 
wild, frantic, and lighted torches from the celestial 
flame. With these they ran out shouting through 
the mad throng, all through the church, into all the 
side-chapels and galleries, distributing the sacred 
fire. In an incredibly short space of time a thousand 
— five thousand — candles were lighted in the church, 
and in the courts and streets adjoining. Every 
Greek and Armenian in Jerusalem had a candle 
lighted from this divine source — the flame that burst 
out of the Tomb of Christ on the Saturday of Easter- 
week. Soon the partly-burnt candle is extinguished, 
to be preserved until he who held it while it vv^as in 
blaze dies, when it is deposited in his grave. 

This poor rabble believe, without a doubt, that the 
fire issues immediately from God, and I believe the 
tapers are kept scrupulously burning in the churches 
throughout the year, being lighted successively from 
this fire. 



352 A WEEK IN JERUSALEM. 

I witnessed these spectacles against my per- 
sonal inclination, as I did the Dose at Cairo. It is 
extremely revolting to me to see Christians worship- 
ing after pagan models. But in this instance it 
became my duty to be an eye-witness, as I have 
undertaken to report the results of my observations 
to the Church at home, and especially with respect 
to the state of religion in various parts of the world. 

But there has been one scene that I could not 
make up my mind to witness — the very thought of it 
outraged both my faith and my sensibilities. On 
Friday night the crucifixion was dramatized. Of 
course I had long known that such things were done; 
but as I read of them they seemed remote and myth- 
ical. Nozv the affair was in my very neighborhod. I 
was invited to be present, and assured that I should 
have a favorable place to witness the acting. It 
seemed to me that I could not go — that my feet 
would refuse to move. I felt that I should dishonor 
my adorable Saviour if I were to participate in any 
way, even if it were only as a witness, in such a blas- 
phemous caricature of his agony. To see a set of 
heartless priests flaunting their gold brocade in tab- 
leaux of the crucifixion, looking to be accredited as 
fine actors — I could never hold up my head again in 
a Christian assembly if I were to do it. 

At that performance two Greek Christians had 
high words on some point of religion, and one of 
them, who was drunk, stabbed the other. 

One of the most humiliating facts that I have ever 
had to contemplate is that the Turkish soldiers have 
to be present at these solemnities, in considerable 
force, to keep the peace. But I have seen it with my 



A WEEK IN JERUSALEM. 355 

own eyes. It is not an unfriendly, persecuting inter- 
ference, but a necessary measure of police. So 
degraded is the moral standard amongst these degen* 
crate Ritualistic Churches ! 

The greater part of the Church of the Holy 
Sepulcher is in the possession of the Greek Church; 
but the Latins, Armenians, Copts, and Abyssinians, 
have each a chapel, and I believe all have a common 
right in the Chapel of the Sepulcher. 

It seems a little remarkable that there should be n@ 
Missions in Palestine of any Protestant Churchy 
except the Established Church of England and on^ 
small Baptist Church at Nablous, under the care of a 
native pastor. Why has not the heart of the Church 
turned more warmly toward Jerusalem? Surely 
there ought to be an American Church in the city of 
Jerusalem. There is no Protestant place of worship 
in the city but that of the Church of England. I 
hope the Churches of our own country will take the 
matter up, and secure a foothold here without delay. 

Both the United Presbyterian and the Reformed 
Presbyterian Churches have missions in Syria, but 
they are all to the north of Palestine. In Mount 
Lebanon they have had considerable success. But 
is it not desirable, above all things, to see a thorough 
evangelism set on foot in that country from which 
the gospel started out ? I confess to a sentiment of 
that sort. It seems so anomalous that Christianity 
should be effete in the midst of the hills where its 
Author lived and suffered, that I cannot but cry, 
" How long, Lord ! " Nor can I doubt that the day 
hastens when God will recover Mount Zion to 
himself. ^^ 



354 ^ WEEK IN JERUSALEM. 

Christianity is beginning to express itself more 
strongly in the Holy Land. There is the remarkable 
"Temple" community. Then there are some noble 
charities established by Christians in Europe; nota- 
bly a hospital for lepers, founded and endowed by a 
noble lady of Pomerania, and under the care of the 
Moravians. The house is a substantial stone build- 
ing, as, indeed, all houses here are. The premises 
are very well kept, and every thing seemed to us to 
be very well managed. On our way to visit it we 
passed through a throng of lepers congregated near 
the Jaffa gate — all beggars. Though the appearance 
of a leper is different from what I had pictured, many 
©f them have certainly a most loathsome look. 
Their rags and filth give the finishing touch to v/hat 
would be as disgusting as possible without these 
accompaniments. When we entered the hospital the 
contrast was most striking, and even leprosy seemed 
to be half relieved of its horrors by the cleanly and 
comfortable provision made for the inmates. This 
hospital is outside of the wall, beyond the Jaffa gate. 
I at first supposed that all the houses out here were 
built by well-to-do Jews; but I find that some of 
them are Christian Institutions. 

I had often heard of the Jews' wailing-place in 
Jerusalem, and had a great desire to see it. The 
great Mosque of Omar occupies the site of the old 
Temple, and is also surrounded by a wall which sep- 
arates it from the rest of the city. The east wall, 
though, is the city wall, while the other three divide 
the grounds of the mosque from the city. The 
grounds thus secluded are a quadrangle of a quarter 
©f a mile each way. This area of the mosque 



A WEEK IN JERUSALEM. 35$ 

grounds is, as nearly as can be ascertained, the same 
as that which was devoted to the Temple. Ini@ 
this area, the dearest place on earth to the Jew — ^h^ 
holy ground — he is never permitted to enter. 

The streets of Jerusalem are extremely irregular 
— and there is one very short, perhaps three hundred 
yards long, and rather wider than the average 
street here, which lies under the west wall of the 
Temple-grounds. This wall is very high, probably 
thirty feet — a mere dead wall, without any break for 
door or window. A low wall runs parallel with It -oft 
the other side of the street. This street is so situ- 
ated as to be very little used, and the Jews have 
purchased of the Turkish authorities the right t® 
come here every Friday afternoon, and bewail the 
destruction of the city and Temple, and their owa 
dispersed condition. This place we have visited 
twice — once on Thursday to see the place, and then 
at the hour of wailing. Even on Thursday we foun^H 
a few there uttering their dirge-like lamentation. 
But on Friday the whole street was filled with them, 
bewailing in a solemn and bitter tone the desolation 
of their race, and calling on the God of their father* 
for pity and help. There they were, as near to the 
holy ground as they could get, yet excluded front 
it — and gathered there to mourn. I scarcely ever 
shed tears, but at that sight the tears came. Truq^ 
as was to be expected, with many it was only a 
formal thing ; but there were many whose wail came 
out of their very souls. Face, and attitude, and 
voice, all were in unison with the solemn purpose of 
the occasion. Judah has been in mourning for 2,00» 



356 A WEEK IN JERUSALEM. 

years. Is it His blood on them and on their chil- 
dren ? 

Sometimes there is a responsive chant in these 
words : 

Leader. For the place that lies desolate. Re- 
sponse. We sit in solitude and mourn. 

Leader. For the place that is destroyed. R. We 
^it, etc. 

Leader. For the walls that are overthrown. R. 
We sit, etc. 

Leader. For our majesty that is departed. R. 
We sit, etc. 

Leader. For our great men who lie dead. R. 
We sit, etc. 

Leader. For the precious stones that are burned. 
R. We sit, etc. 

Leader. For the priests who have stumbled. R. 
We sit, etc. 

Leader. For our kings who have despised Him. 
K. We sit, etc. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

JERUSALEM. 

^ pO ONE WEEK can suffice to get a thorough 

\| knowledge of the topography of Jerusalem. If 
J I could command the time for it I should 
remain a month at least. But as it is, I must make 
the best of the few days I have. 

We have at last visited the great Mosque of Omar, 
which occupies the site of the old Temple. It is by 
far the most magnificent building here, and is held 
by good Mussulmans the most sacred place on earth, 
next to Mecca. Until within a few years past no 
Christian was permitted to enter it, and even now 
the Jews are rigidly excluded. 

The mosque stands, as the Temple did, in an area 
a quarter of a mile square. This area is surrounded 
by a very massive and high wall of stone. The open 
space, therefore, immediately surrounding the 
mosque, is large. There is another building in the 
south-east corner of the inclosure — the El Aksa 
Mosque. 

The principal building, the Mosque of Omar, 
occupies the very spot on which the Temple of Solo- 
mon stood. Of this there can be no reasonable 
doubt. It is the site, also, where a very old tradi- 
tion locates the offering of Isaac ; but, of course, this 
is wanting in any historical proof, though it is likely 



358 JERUSALEM. 

that that great transaction took place hereabouts, if 
not at this exact place. 

A very large paved area surrounds the Temple, 
the pavement being of squares of dressed limestone* 
The building is an octagon, the wall being of lime- 
stone. Above the octagon is a circular story, and 
that is surmounted by the dome which is celebrated 
over the whole world, both for its great size and 
beauty of design, as well as for the wonderfully 
gorgeous ornamentation of the interior. On the out- 
side of the story that the dome rests on there is a 
casing of blue porcelain tiling — at least, blue is the 
prevailing color, but it is relieved and variegated by 
other colors. 

Inside of the mosque there are numerous columns, 
extremely massive, mostly of marble, of rich dark 
colors, variegated. A few of them are of porphyry. 
A most remarkable thing about them is that no two 
are alike. They differ from each other in almost 
every respect — in the sort of marble, in size, and in 
the size of the capitals. 

The interior decoration of the mosque is indescrib- 
able. The inlaid work, which is seen everywhere, in 
some angles of light sparkles like diamonds. There 
are elaborate figures in inlaid work of glass fused 
with gold. The process is this : gold-leaf is placed 
between two plates of glass, and the whole brought 
to a state of fusion by heat. It is glass which is as 
it were gold. The whole of the interior of the dome 
is covered with elaborate and beautiful figures of this 
sort of work in great variety. Even below the dome 
on the inner surfaces the work appears in astonishing 



JERUSALEM. 359 

profusion. Gorgeous ! This is the only word I can 
think of. 

It is supposed that the top of the hill, which is of 
solid rock, was oval naturally, and that it was leveled 
off preparatory to the building of the Temple ; but, 
according to the Rabbins, there was one part of the 
rock left at the original elevation, all around it being 
leveled down. This rock, according to the same 
authorities, stood in the Holy of Holies, and on it 
the Ark of the Covenant, shadowed by the wings of 
the cherubim, rested. This elevation of the solid rock 
remains, standing under the dome, and surrounded 
by a high and strong railing. I say it re^nains ; but 
a good deal of it has been taken off of late years by 
the Mohammedans, and sent off to remote regions 
to make sacred shrines of. From this rock they 
affirm Mohammed ascended to heaven, and they will 
prove it to you by two infallible signs — the first is a 
deep indentation made by his foot when he made 
the wonderful spring that propelled him up, and the 
second is in the form of deep marks made by the 
angel Gabriel in his tussle with the rock to hold it 
down, for it did its best to follow the prophet in his 
celestial flight. The finger-prints of the angel are 
very deep. The skepticism that can resist all this 
must be incorrigible ! 

There is also here under this great dome a small 
cave into which we were taken, and in which there 
are two small structures that have some wonderful 
Mussulman legends connected with them. Dr. De- 
Hass suggests that it is possible that Araunah used 
it for storing his wheat after it was threshed ; for 
Araunah's threshing-floor was on this hill. We had 



360 JERUSALEM. 

the Doctor with us in visiting the mosque, and his 
presence and the information he was able to give 
were of great value to us. He showed us traces of 
passages which must have been those which led 
from the Temple to the Palace of Solomon, which 
stood on the southern slope of the same hill, and 
perhaps the very steps by which the king *' went 
up " from his own house to the house of the Lord. 
His long and careful study of the locality has 
enabled him to trace marks of the remains of the 
oldest times, which are very striking when- your 
attention is called to them ; but which, nevertheless, 
a stranger, passing along hastily, would be likely to 
overlook. He took us to the mouth of the great 
reservoir which contained an abundant water-supply 
for the Temple. This reservoir was cut out of the 
solid rock, and is still underground, with a few open- 
ings down to it, at different places, through which 
the water was drawn, and a principal one in which 
steep steps cut in the living rock descend to the 
water's edge. It is several rods square and very 
deep. 

The Doctor also explained to us the wonderful 
system of drainage by which the purity of the 
grounds was effectually provided for. It seems, 
indeed, to have been very perfect. Every thing was 
taken off by channels cut through the rock, with 
abundant water running continually to bear it to the 
Valley of Jehoshaphat, far below. 

But nothing interested me more than what are 
called " Solomon's Stables," and what might really 
have served that purpose very well. This wonderful 
structure is under the eastern part of the Temple 



JERUSALEM. 361 

grounds, and consists of a system of columns and 
arches springing from the top of the columns. The 
purpose they served primarily was to extend the level 
space of the Temple area far over the brow of the 
eastern declivity of the mountain, as it sloped down 
so rapidly toward the chasm of the brook Kedron — 
which is the Valley of Jehoshaphat. The stones of 
which these columns and arches are constructed are 
enormous. The line of columns farthest east is very 
high, and as the successive rows westward stand on 
the side of the hill higher up, the columns become 
shorter. The tops of them all are upon the same 
horizontal line, the dome-like arches over them mak- 
ing a solid basis over which the Temple grounds were 
extended. Indeed, on the eastern, or lowers side, 
there is another set of pillars and arches underneath 
that which I have described — very massive — which 
serve as supports for those above ; for the elevation 
on thai" side was too great to be reached safely by 
one set of pillars. These substructions of the pave- 
ment of the Temple area, as it was extended out 
over the steep slope of Mount Moriah toward the 
Kedron, are very grand in their massiveness, and one 
gets an idea of the magnitude of the work of build- 
ing the Temple when he sees them. The Temple 
itself was not a very large building, but the walls 
around the large open area in which it stood, the 
pavement that surrounded it, and the substructions, 
all of stones of great size, constitute, all taken to- 
gether, a work of stupendous proportions. I never 
before felt the force of the simple statement that the 
structure was made of ** great stones and hewn stones^* 
for while many of the stones are of great size the fit- 



362 JERUSALEM. 

ting and adjustment of them are very perfect. There 
has been no such work done here since. In the Ro- 
man period there were splendid palaces, and Herod's 
extension of the Temple was very large and mag- 
nificent, but the stupendous blocks used in the first 
instance have no fellows in the later work. The 
Saracens, too, have built splendidly, but they have 
done no work that for grandeur of conception, or 
Titanic power of execution, can begin to comipare 
with that of the old Phoenician architects to whom 
these great structures, no doubt, owe their grandeur. 
Whenever an old stone has boen found, coming down 
from that period, and built into a modern wall, it 
shames the puny execution of the moderns, and 
where a section of an old wall still stands it presents 
a massy front which inspires the beholder with awe. 

At the Russian Hospice, outside the wall, in the 
excavations made preparatory to building, a mon- 
strous unfinished column was unearthed, which rivals 
in size, though not in length, the great obeHsks of 
Egypt. It was cut out of the native rock, but seems 
to have been broken before it was finished, and there- 
fore abandoned. It was covered only to the depth 
of a few feet, and the Russians, with great good 
taste, when they discovered it, laid it entirely bare, 
and walled the excavation in a substantial manner, 
so as to preserve it from being again concealed. 
There it lies, a dumb witness of the unknown Titans 
whose astonishing architectural achievements have 
dropped out of all written history. 

But no traces of the oldest masonry about the 
city interested us more than those laid bare in the 
excavations made about the *' Bishop's School," an 



JERUSALEM. 363 

institution of the English Church. It lies on the 
south side of the city, outside of the wall, on the 
descent into the Valley of Hinnom. In the exca- 
vations made to get a foundation, and make a 
little level space about the building, a section of the 
old wall was found, deeply covered by the debris of 
ages. Some portions of it were found where the 
wall had been bodily toppled over by some amazing 
force, and the stones were rebuilt into an outer wall 
connected with the school. The line of wall was fol- 
lowed for some distance. It evidently took in the 
whole of the point of the mountain projecting down 
to the junction of the Gihon and Kedron, or at least 
as far as the pool of Siloam. On this part of the 
old city prophetic malediction has taken effect in the 
most liberal way. It is left out of the modern wall, 
and, precipitous as the ground is, it is under the 
plow, and on a great part of it the wheat, in full head, 
is waving to the winds while I write this. 

But I introduced this matter for the purpose of 
remarking upon the character of the work. I can 
scarcely believe that it was the work of the Jebu- 
sites, though Dr. DeHass inclines to that opin- 
ion, and certainly if it be so it will explain the 
singular fact that after all the surrounding country 
had been occupied by the warlike tribes of Judah 
and Benjamin, the Jebusites maintained themselves 
in this stronghold for four centuries. Below the wall 
the deep escarpment in the solid rock descends to a 
depth of, perhaps, fifty feet, on the face of the moun- 
tain. With the means of assault then in use, the 
wonder is, not that it held out so long, but that it 
was ever taken at all. 



364 ' JERUSALEM. 

Just at the foot of the wall, where it rests on the 
escarpment, two baths were made in the solid rock, 
and even now they contain two or three feet of 
water. Just along the upper edge of the solid rock 
a gutter was cut, evidently for the purpose of saving 
the water that fell in the rainy season. Stairways, to 
a dizzy height, were cut in the living rock; and 
when they were laid bare a few years ago, after hav- 
ing been covered up for nearly two thousand years, 
they were deeply worn by the friction of human feet. 
The soldiers that garrisoned Jerusalem had been 
ascending and descending here for more than a thou- 
sand years before the birth of our Lord. I could 
not resist the temptation to go up and down those 
steps which, perhaps, the " mighty men " of David's 
invincible army had trod, and, possibly, the intrepid 
Jebusites before them. 

One is perpetually reminded here of the complete 
overthrow of the ancient city. It stood before our 
Lord so strong in its impregnable walls, with its 
buildings constructed of stones so immense as to 
defy the ravages of time, when from the Mount of 
Olives, over against it, he beheld it and wept over it, 
that one would have said it must stand while the 
hills stand. But he pronounced those quiet words, 
" Not one stone shall be left upon another that shall 
not be thrown down." They were projectiles from 
a divine catapult, and swept the doomed city into 
ruins. 

Even the modern city, dwarfed in contrast with its 
ancient ruins, presents an aspect of solidity rarely 
seen elsewhere. There is very little wood used in 
any of its buildings. All is stone. The walls are of 



JERUSALEM. 365 

stone ; the floors, in every story, are of stone, resting 
on solid stone arches ; so also the roofs. The very 
stairways are of stone. Even now it is a wonderful 
city. 

•^ One fact stated to me by our Consul took me 
wholly by surprise. This city of the Jews, ruled as 
we ail know by the Turks, is owned by Christians — 
not by individual Christians — but by Churches, and 
mainly by convents. The house occupied by the 
American Consulate is rented of the Armenian Patri* 
arch, being the property of the great convent of that 
Church here. These corporations never die, and so 
there is never any distribution of their estates. Prop- 
erty used for religious purposes is free from taxa- 
tion here — Christian as well as Mohammedan. But 
the Christians could well afford to pay a reasonable 
tax on their Church-property to be exempted from 
the loaiis they are called upon, to make. The Pasha 
says to the Patriarch, "Lend me ;^ioo,ooo for the 
Government." The Patriarch is free to make the 
loan or not. But he knows two things — first, that 
the money will never be paid, nor any interest on it j 
and secondly, that if he does not make it he will soon 
find himself in a horrible Turkish prison. He will 
not be imprisoned for refusing the loan — ^not at all ! 
That is no offense. But he will be imprisoned in a 
filthy hole, and in the company of the vilest crimi- 
nals, and kept there from year to year, and in all 
probability die there. It will be given out that he is 
guilty of some crime, not specified, and that he will 
be brought to trial soon — yet he will suffer on for 
years, while one thing is certain, that is, he will never 
be brought to his trial. Within the last five or six 



366 JERUSALEM. 

years, the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem was thrown 
into prison just in this way, when the American Con- 
sul demanded his release. I believe the Consuls of 
several European Governments joined in the demand. 
They were put off with dilatory replies. The Amer- 
ican Consul went to the prison with the attaches of 
his office and the official insignia, and enforced the 
demand. But the Pasha found other means of per- 
secuting the venerable ecclesiastic and securing his 
removal. His successor made the loan of cotirse. 
The despotism of the Government, and the infamous 
corruption of the officials, make it a stench in the 
Bostrils of all enlightened men, and European ideas 
©f government, and even American ideas, are begin- 
ning to spread here. Even our dragoman, good 
Mussulman as he is, has volunteered to express his 
disgust with the Turkish Government, and his opin- 
ion of the prosperity the country would enjoy if it 
were governed as England or America is. 

H. took great pleasure in finding all the various 
localities about Jerusalem without a guide, with the 
a.id only of his guide-book; and although it occa- 
sioned some loss of time, and in one instance 
ixecessitated our going over the same ground a 
second time, I did not object, for the time may be 
well-spent lingering about the streets and suburbs of 
the city. Besides, your guide is certain to annoy 
you by keeping up a constant gabble about his 
traditional nonsense, which diverts you from your 
Qwn observations and reflections, which, no matter 
who you may be, are sure to be infinitely more 
rational. It seems to no purpose to request him to 
tie silent, for isn't he paid to enlighten you on all 



JERUSALEM. '^6f 

these points? and whoever knew an Oriental who 
would consent to receive money without returning 
the full value in service ? Except when we had the 
very valuable assistance of Dr. DeHass we preferred 
to be alone. We also discarded horses, and saw 
Jerusalem and suburbs on foot. Our week here was 
a laborious one, but one of the most delightful of our 
lives. In one of our tramps we went to the junction 
of the Kedron and Gihon, for the purpose of 
determining the topography of the remarkable 
gorges formed by these two rivulets, if rivulets the/ 
may be called, for no water flows in them, except aS 
the immediate and momentary result of copious 
rains. No one can realize what a stronghold Jerusa- 
lem was by nature until he sees these gorges, and 
even then he must call in the aid of his imagination, 
for the ledges of naked rock, presenting many 
perpendicular faces, have, in the lapse of centuries^ 
been covered and rounded over by the rubbish 
thrown out of the city. In addition to these topo- 
graphical observations, we desired to see the pool of 
Siloam, which is on the point that runs dowA 
between the two gorges to their confluence. We 
did not go directly to the point, but crossed the 
Kedron half a mile or more above, and ascended the 
bluff on the east side, so as to pass through the vil- 
lage of Siloa, or Siloam, where the tower fell once 
on eighteen persons, " and slew them." Seen from 
the other side of the Kedron it looks like a cluster of 
houses glued to the almost perpendicular side of the 
mountain. Only one continuous street runs through 
the village, and that is very tortuous, making many 
violent angles as well with the line of the horizon as 



368 JERUSALEM. 

with the points of the compass. It is frequently on 
the plane of the foundations of the houses on the 
left, and of the roofs of those on the right. One 
wall of the greater part of the houses is the face of 
the rock in its natural position. It is a miserable 
Mohammedan community, which, so far as I could 
see, exists only for the purpose of breeding boys 
with uncommon cheek, even for Arabs, to run in 
packs at the heels of travelers, plucking their 
sleeves, and shouting, ^'Backsheesh!' 

When we came to what we supposed was the pool 
©f Siloam, we soon became convinced of our mistake. 
There were two ruinous-looking stone structures, 
small and not very ancient, and a well of water con- 
nected with one of them. It proved to be what is 
called by the natives, "Job's Well." Places are 
named by these modern Arabs without rhyme or 
reason. We had, in fact, stumbled on the ancient 
En Rogel, one of the points named in describing the 
boundary between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. 
It is in the valley, very near the junction between the 
JCedron and Gihon. 

Consulting the guide-book afresh, we took our 
■bearings, and, going up on to the point on the 
Kedron side of it, we found, first, what is called the 
lower pool of Siloam. It was made simply by build- 
ing a dam across a short ravine. It is nov/ dry, and 
is, in fact, in cultivation. Near by, and just at IIjC 
base of a cliff, we found the real pool. It is a pit 30 
or 40 feet long, by perhaps 15 in width, sunk into the 
ground to the depth of 10 or 12 feet, and walled v. 
$tone. The walls are perpendicular. Short porti :■ 
Qf columns are still standing in it, which were o ' 



JERUSALEM. 369 

the supports of a beautiful structure which sheltered 
it. It is supplied with water from a copious spring, 
which comes out at the base of the cliff. The water 
in the pool is quite shallow, an outlet draining it off 
through a rock-hewn channel to a ditch from which 
it irrigates several gardens in the valley. 

I doubt not that in our Saviour's time the pool was 
under a roof supported upon beautiful columns, and 
that a flight of stone steps led down to the water. 
I could but imagine the blind man, led by the hand, 
anxiously approaching and washing his eyes, to 
open them with rapture upon the ,deep azure of a 
Judean sky. In India, and especially in Egypt and 
Palestine, diseases of the eye and blindness are 
much more common than in America. At every 
turn you meet a blind man led by a boy. '' A blind 
man sat by the wayside begging." We have seen 
scores of them sitting flat in the dust on the side of 
a frequented road. 

We took a long walk one morning, going out on 
the Damascus road a mile or more, to Scopus, the 
ridge on which was the principal camp of the 
Roman army during the siege, and following the 
ridge around to the Mount of Olives, with vvhich it 
forms a continuous chain. From one point in this 
walk we got our best viev/ of the city, a view which 
showed the depression of the Tyropoean Valley 
throughout its whole extent. This valley was once 
a deep gorge separating Mount Zion from Mount 
Moriah, but is now so nearly filled up that its precip- 
itous clifls have entirely disappeared, and it has 
come to be a gentle depression traversing the city in 
a southeasterly course. Looking from the Mount of 



370 JERUSALEM. 

Olives you see the city across this valley, and lyin^ 
on both sides of it, so that the line of vision does 
not reveal it. But from a more northerly position 
the eye takes in the whole contour of the area 
within the walls. 

In the same walk we saw a little farming village 
on the slope of a hill to our left — a very unpretend- 
ing place now. Probably it was always so. So far 
as I know, but one event ever occurred there to give 
it any historical importance. One man was born 
there who belongs to the ages — the Prophet Jere- 
miah. It was " the city of Anathoth." This dis- 
covery was, to me, a pleasant surprise, for, if I had 
ever known, I had forgotton that the birthplace of 
this man of tears was in the immediate vicinity of 
the wicked city whose overthrow he lamented with 
such eloquent effect as to give his very name to be 
the descriptive designation of that whole class of 
literary effusions — Jeremiad. 

From the same point we had one of our best views 
of the Dead Sea and the " mountains of Moab." No 
doubt our eyes rested upon the very summit from 
which Moses saw the Promised Land which he could 
not enter. There he died, and God buried him, and 
"the place of his sepulcher no man knoweth unto 
this day ; " howbeit the Arabs will show you his 
tomb on this side of the Jordan — with their customary 
accuracy and veracity. 

On Sunday, in the morning, we heard Bishop 
Gobat, of the Church of England, preach a sermon 
of great simplicity, in which he took occasion to 
lament the ritualistic follies that are creeping into 
"our beloved Church." He is a Swiss by birth. 



JERUSALEM. 3/1 

For three years he labored in Abyssinia. His 
diocese, he informed me, extends from the head of 
the Nile to the mouth of the Euphrates ! The Bishop 
is now a very aged man, deeply evangelical, and 
ready for his change, which must soon come. 

The Rector of the Church, a converted German 
Jew, made an announcement that interested me. It 
was, as nearly as I can recall it, in these words : 
*' There will be a meeting in the lecture-room of this 
church, at half-past seven o'clock this evening. 
Bishop Marvin, of the Methodist Church, in the 
United States of America, will deliver a lecture. 
The regular evening service will be suspended." 
This Rector is a delightful man, full of the love of 
Christ, but trammeled by the exclusiveness of his 
Church. He would have had me to preach in the 
main audience-room, after reading the service him- 
self, but our Consul had told him that he thought I 
would enjoy it better to occupy the lecture-room, 
and do things in the Methodist style. So, at the 
appointed hour, I met a crowded audience and lec- 
tured ox\. Rom. iii, 31. 

On Monday morning we were to start out on a tour 
through the country. For this purpose we had 
entered into a written contract with Solomon Ali, of 
Jaffa, a professional dragoman. H^e was to furnish 
us riding-horses that we should be satisfied with after 
trial, comfortable tents and bedding, and first-class 
fare, to pay all necessary backsheesh^ to go with us to 
such places as we might desire, especially to Jericho, 
the Jordan, Mar Saba, Hebron, the Pools of Solomon, 
Bethlehem, Shiloh, Shechem, Nazareth, the Sea of 
Galilee, Damascus, and Baalbec, terminating the 



3/2 JERUSALEM. 

tour at Beyroot ; and we, on our part, to pay him, 
for each one of the party, a pound sterling per diem. 
The contract had been duly attested by the American 
Consul, who knew Solomon, and assured us of his 
efficiency and integrity. So, we had nothing to 
do but to mount our steeds in the morning, deter- 
mine where we would camp for the night, ride to such 
places as might be practicable during the day, take 
lunch at a convenient point, and toward nightfall go 
to the place of encampment to find the tent pitched, 
the table set, and a smoking dinner ready to be 
served. 

Our party is a select one, consisting only of three 
persons, the third being Mr. Samson, a young gen- 
tleman from Virginia, a Presbyterian, a student of 
divinity, who has been at Leipsic, in Germany, for 
three years devoting himself to the study of lan- 
guages, and who has come here to see the sacred 
places of Christian history, and to study the collo- 
quial, as he has already studied the classical Arabic. 



CHAPTER XXVIIL 

IN THE SADDLE AND IN THE TENT. 

(J^AILROADS would ruin the Holy Land. It 
(A^ seems almost a pity that there should be a car- 
\^ riage-road from Jaffa to Jerusalem. This one 
region ought to be preserved as it was two thousand 
years ago. The scream of the locomotive would 
sound almost like profanation in the midst of these 
hills. The telegraph is bad enough. 

It is actually delightful — this traversing the coun- 
try on horseback and camping out. Our baggage is 
carried on pack-mules. There are three of us, and it 
takes seven men and ten horses and mules to get us 
along. The men are the dragoman, a waiter, a cook, 
three mule-drivers, and Achmed, who goes along 
with us on a pony, loaded with our lunch, and such 
articles as overcoats and umbrellas — in short, all 
such things as we are liable to need in the course of 
the day. He carries all this, and rides himself on 
the smallest horse of the lot, but the horse is a mar- 
vel cf endurance. 

The principal tent is a very large one, and when- 
ever it is pitched the American flag floats above it. 
It is the sitting, dining, sleeping-room. The smaller 
tent is the kitchen, and I suppose the dragoman and 
some others sleep in it, but the muleteers sleep under 
the sky. 



374 SADDLE AND TENT. 

We are generally on the road early. At about 
noon we stop under an olive tree, or under " the 
shadow of a great rock," or in a wayside khan, when 
Achmed unloads his pony, spreads down a carpet, 
takes out three tin plates, with knives and silver 
forks, and produces our luncheon. This consists, 
usually, of cold roast mutton, cold boiled chicken, 
good light bread, cold boiled eggs, with the requi- 
site condiments, besides figs or raisins, nuts and 
oranges. 

The time of getting into camp varies with the 
length of the day's journey. The baggage train 
always precedes us, and on arrival we find our tent 
pitched, with our personal baggage in it, three pew- 
ter wash-bowls, half full of water, standing outside, 
with snowy towels hanging near, and three iron- 
framed cots, having the mattresses already laid, with 
pillow, blanket, and clean sheets — positively beckon- 
ing us, as it were, to a siesta. At six o'clock, din- 
ner comes — soup, the most delicious, roast mutton, 
chicken, variously prepared, vegetables, well cooked, 
pudding, fruits and nuts, all served on elegant china, 
with change of plates with each variety. What 
think you of that for a pilgrim ? 

Our employes are all good-natured and accom- 
modating. In the evening we have a busy scene of 
cooking, currying horses and mules, feeding them, 
and other camp duties. After running loose and 
grazing for a time the mules and horses are fastened. 
This is done in a peculiar way. A rope is drawn 
along on the surface of the ground, stretched tight, 
and fastened down at several points by pegs. To 
this the animals are tied by halters. They eat their 



SADDLE AND TENT. 375 

grain in sacks. On each side of the sack's mouth a 
piece of rope is fastened, and then tied to the head- 
stall of the halter. These are so short that they 
keep the nose in the sack, so that there is no waste 
of grain. 

Our companionship in the tent is most delightful, 
We talk over scenes connected with each place we 
visit, and find great pleasure in following up the 
migrations of the Patriarchs, the adventures of 
heroes, and, above all, the footsteps of the Lord, who, 
among these hills, "went about doing good." 

Monday morning we started out. Going out at the 
Jaffa Gate, we made half the circuit of the city, 
descended into the valley of Jehoshaphat, crossed 
the Kedron, went over the southern shoulder of the 
Mount of Olives, passed along by the village of 
Bethany, and so made our way down to Jericho. 
For many miles the path — for it can scarcely be 
called a road — leads down a canyon, as it would be 
called in the Rocky Mountains, with bold, limestone 
ridges on both sides. Down this canyon David 
passed when he fled from his unnatural son, and 
along the declivity of the ridges ran Shimei, cursing 
and throwing stones. The narrative has a most 
natural and life-like import when one sees the place. 
Along this same way our Lord went up on his last 
journey to Jerusalem to be ** offered up," after heal- 
ing the two blind men at Jericho, and bringing salva- 
tion i.:to the house of Zaccheus. 

Havii^g made about half our day's ride, we crossed 
a low ridge, where there are the ruins of some old 
buildings. This is the traditional site of the Inn of 
the Good Samaritan. Here, under the shadow of a 



3/6 SADDLE AND TENT. 

great rock, we rested, and took our lunch. We were 
soon in the saddle again, and in a short time found 
ourselves descending another canyon, toward the val- 
ley of the Jordan, or rather riding along the moun- 
tain-side with the bottom of the gorge far below. As 
we approached the valley, looking down into the 
deep chasm we saw a little water, the first we had 
seen running in any stream since we left the banks 
of the Nile. This is believed to be the brook 
Cherith, from which Elijah drank until it failed him 
in the drought. 

On leaving Jerusalem, for several miles you pass 
in sight of cultivated fields here and there, but as 
you approach the valley of the Jordan, the hills, 
which are steep and rugged all the way, assume more 
and more the character of a desert. The natural 
vegetation, scanty all the way, becomes still more 
so, and cultivation ceases altogether. Along these 
lower ridges of the mountains a single stratum of 
dark rock, that seems to be of volcanic origin, crops 
out through the lime-stone in the most fantastic con- 
volutions. Farther down it appears in greater masses, 
always in such angles and positions as suggest 
the presence of violent forces in its upheaval and 
placement. The geologist must account for this 
most singular phenomenon — and that other more 
amazing one, the depression of the valley of the Jor- 
don and of the Dead Sea. From the Lake of Galilee 
-down the valley is below the level of the ocean, and 
the surface of the Dead Sea is more than 1,300 feet 
below. 

^'A certain man went down from Jerusalem to 
Jericho." I shall never need a Commentary again 



SADDLE AND TENT. 3// 

on this passage. With the exception of the low 
ridge of the traditional inn where we lunched, we 
were going dozvn, dow7t, down, all the way, till we 
reached the plain of Jericho. Jerusalem is near 
3,000 feet above the sea-level, and the Jordan, at its 
mouth, 1,300 below. I follow Baldeker. The plain, 
where the road enters it, some two miles from Jer- 
icho, is, perhaps, 300 feet above the Jordan, so that 
in about sixteen miles you make a descent of near 
4,000 feet. 

Soon after entering the plain we came upon a 
flush stream of water, bordered on all sides with 
verdure. Following it a few hundred yards we came 
to the point where it bursts from the earth a.t the 
base of a low hill. It is called the Fountain of 
Elisha, the popular tradition identifying it as the 
spring that the prophet healed. There is quite a 
breadth of cultivation here, the fields being irrigated 
from this stream. The cultivation is slovenly in the 
extreme, and yet the yield of wheat is generous. 
The water supply is sufficient, if it were properly 
husbanded and distributed, for the irrigation of a 
wide area, and in that case it would furnish food for 
many thousands. When Lot looked down upon it 
from the western hills it was like the garden of the 
Lord, and when Joshua invaded it, it was so fruitful 
as to support two considerable cities — Jericho and 
Gilgal — the former of which, at least, was a wailed 
city. At present there is only a miserable village 
here, inhabited by a few families noted for indolence 
and indigence. We camped near the village, which 
is about four miles from the Jordan, and ten from the 
Dead Sea. 



3/8 SADDLE AND TENT. 

In the morning we were off bright and early for 
the Jordan, being joined by another party that were 
in camp near by. We were prompted to this — shall 
I confess it ? — by rumors of two murders and several 
robberies committed near the river, only a day or 
two before, by " the Bedouins." Besides that, a man 
we had been traveling with, and who had made an 
independent trip to the Jordan under the escort of 
two Sheiks and a dragoman, came to our tent in 
breathless excitement to tell us of a suspicious-look- 
ing Arab who had appeared on the other side of the 
river that very day, while he was bathing. His 
Sheiks, he told us, " were dreadfully scart," so that 
he was obliged to cut his bathing short and get 
away, albeit, as he assured us over and over a^ain, 
he himself was ** not scart a bit." 

Almost every one is disappointed in the size of 
this river, but the current is deep and rapid, and the 
volume of water considerable. My two companions 
bathed leisurely, and we got away without so much 
as a distant sight of the Bedouins. All the country 
east of the river is occupied by these tribes, which 
are still nomadic to a great degree, and there is no 
doubt that they are very lawless. All who travel on 
that side have to secure the protection of each one 
of the Bedouin Sheiks through whose lands they 
pass, propitiating them with large backsheesh. 

Having seen the Jordan, we pushed on to the 
Dead Sea. On the way we met another party, when 
suddenly, from some distance, the Arabs of the two 
parties dashed toward each other, putting their 
horses up to full speed, and had a mimic battle, 
firing their revolvers and careering around at a grand 



SADDLE AND TENT. 379 

rate. It was really quite exciting. Our dragoman 
bore himself splendidly, reigning his steed hither and 
thither with great dexterity, looking superbly fierce, 
and firing this way and that as if he were in the 
midst of a troop of Bedouins. I felt proud of him. 

Here we are at last on the sandy beach of the 
Dead Sea. Now is my time to bathe ! I had been 
charged by knowing ones to keep my head out of the 
water, and to be careful, above all things, that none 
of it should get into my eyes. But I plunged in, 
head foremost, and got my eyes full. Well, what of 
it? It is simply strong salt water — that is all. It is 
quite clear, so that you can see the bottom at a con- 
siderable depth. People are beginning to bathe in it 
for sanitary purposes. It is said to be a specific for 
obstinate cutaneous diseases. As for my eyes, the 
smarting soon ceased, being followed by a pleasant 
sensation, of which I was still conscious the next 
day. 

The water that dripped down from my hair, as it 
dried upon my neck, left a white incrustation of salt, 
so strongly is it impregnated with chloride of 
sodium. 

Our camp for that night was at Mar Saba, an old 
and famous Greek monastery, built in the cliffs of 
the brook Kedron, in the mountains, a few miles 
from the Dead Sea. The gorge of the brook here» 
is several hundred feet deep, and the cliffs almost 
perpendicular. The monastery is of very irregular 
construction, occupying the face of the cliff on the 
right side, and getting a foothold on the successive 
ledges as it can. It straggles up almost from the 
base to the summit. It was founded, I believe, in 



380 SADDLE AND TENT. 

the fourth century, and has many old manuscripts, 
supposed to be very valuable. We were favored 
with an order from the Patriarch of Jerusalem to be 
admitted to a sight of these treasures. On applying 
for the privilege we were shown into a very small 
room where there are, perhaps, a hundred bound 
volumes of manuscripts on parchment. They were 
carefully written. The beginning of each book was 
in illuminated character. The figure of the fish ap- 
peared every here and there in red ink on the mar- 
gin. The ink is faded very little, if at all. 

We learned afterward that we had been cheated. 
The great collection was not shown us at all. It is 
in a large room, where the old rolls of parchment lie 
in great piles. 

We have had soldiers to guard our camp every 
night. Here one of the monks volunteered to assist 
the soldiers, and gave us as his reason that he was 
willing to stand guard for the purpose of getting 
some meat to eat, as in the monastery he never got 
anything but olives and vegetables. Moreover, we 
had to buy water of the monks. They have ditches 
all along the mountain sides to drain the winter rains 
into their vast reservoirs for use in the summer. 
There is none to be had elsewhere for miles, for they 
are in the desert region that skirts the Dead Sea. 
These men are said to be extremely ignorant, and, 
from their general style and appearance, I can well 
believe it. It is further affirmed that, not knowing 
the value of the manuscripts in their possession, they 
have mutilated many of them, and perhaps destroy- 
ed many. But European scholars having of late 
years sought admission to the library, they have 



SADDLE AND TEKT, 38 1 

come now to understand that it is really a treasure 
of great value. 

The road to Mar Saba is very precipitous and 
often very narrow. My horse was a first-rate fellow, 
with a touch of meanness in him. Sometimes the 
path skirting a precipice was just wide enough for a 
horse to walk in ; but where it was three feet wide, 
with a sheer precipice on one side, he would persist 
in walking along in the last six incheSo It was no 
use to rein him off, and I soon got used to it, and 
found him so sure-footed that I lost all concern. 
Our horses were shod with plates of steel, covering 
the bottom of the hoof, and having only a hole in 
the center. They soon wear smooth, and it seems a 
mystery how they get along on the smooth rock on 
the mountain side. But they rarely ever slip. It is 
a mystery to me, but this really seems to be the best 
sort of shoe for these rocky and precipitous roads. 

From Mar Saba we rode direct to Bethlehem. 
This, of course, was a point of supreme interest to 
us. What heightened our interest was the fact that, 
as we had learned, the people of Bethlehem are 
nearly all Christians. There is also another Chris- 
tian town near by. As we proceeded westward from 
Mar Saba we soon found traces of increasing vegeta- 
tion. We were passing out of the desert. Flocks 
of goats tended by shepherds appeared on the hill- 
sides. In a short time cultivation set in — at first in 
patches, and then increasing in breadth. As we 
approached Bethlehem we were both surprised and 
delighted to witness signs of prosperity and industry 
beyond anything we had seen before. The stone 
fences are all kept up in good repair ; the terracing 



382 SADDLE AND TENT. 

was extensive ; olive groves were numerous, and 
green fields spread out in various directions. It 
was evidently the best country, naturally, that we 
had been in, and at the same time better culti- 
vated. The appearance of the town also indicated 
thrift, and impressed us as being very pretty. 
The houses were of a better class than any we 
had seen outside of Jerusalem, not, I think, except- 
ing Jaffa. To be sure, the place owes much to 
the zeal of European Christians, who have erected 
several convents and schools here. These buildings, 
being large and in good style, add much to the 
beauty of the place. The general prosperity is aug- 
mented by them, as they increase the population and 
furnish additional employment to the people. 

But while much is due to these circumstances, we 
were convinced that this Christian community is of a 
higher type than the average population of the coun- 
try. Especially the women are of a higher order. 
They have not the overworked and dejected look so 
common among the women of the country. They 
seem more self-respecting, and are not so meanly 
dressed ; they have a fresher, brighter countenance, 
and a more becoming manner. Another thing struck 
us and gratified us, that is, that the clamor for 
backsheesh is not so universal nor so persistent — 
indeed, there was but little of it as compared with 
other places. 

The place of principal interest is the old basilica, 
which covers the traditional site of the stable in 
which the Saviour was born. According to this 
tradition the stable was a grotto in the side of the 
hill — and this is not improbable ; for such were often 



SADDLE AND TENT. 383 

used as stables, and it is very likely there was a 
grotto connected with the village-inn at Bethlehem. 
These caves of small extent, under the ledges of 
limestone that crop out all over the country, have 
been used in this way from immemorial times. St. 
Jerome gave full credit to this tradition, and came 
here and lived in a cell very near the grotto, and 
there died. I am strongly inclined to believe that 
this is the very place where our Lord was born ; yet 
it is not certain that such is the case. Even if it is, 
the natural aspects of it are so changed that it does 
not appear the same. The basilica was built over 
the grotto, and an ornamental approach made to it 
from each side, with columns beautifully carved. 
The sides have been shaped by the architect and 
covered with rich tapestry. A niche has been formed 
in which they affirm the Infant was born. There 
lamps are kept perpetually burning, and the 
Greek and Latin and Armenian Christians alike, 
when they enter, kiss the stone floor. Near by, only 
a few feet removed, is another niche which they say 
is the manger in which he was laid, wrapped in 
swaddling clothes, and in which he received the 
adoration of the wise men and the shepherds. Here, 
too, lights are always burning, and here the stone is 
kissed by the ignorant worshiper with as devout a 
feeling as if there could be no doubt as to its 
identity. 

We were shown, also, under the church, the 
alleged grotto of St. Jerome, where the pious monk 
who conducted us assured us there was no doubt the 
great saint had spent his closing years. Near by, 
also, is his tomb. 



384 SADDLE AND TENT. 

There is no doubt about the great age of this 
building. It dates, if I am not mistaken, from the 
fourth century. The general design is plain and 
simple, and well adapted for preaching — a fact which 
differences it from Greek and Latin churches of a 
later period. But the walls, or some of them at 
least, were elaborately ornamented with inlaid work, 
in which groups of the holy family and of the apos- 
tles appear. Whether this was done at first, or was 
the work of a later period, I do not know. Only 
patches of it now remain, the greater part having 
becom.e so injured that it had to be removed. The 
figures are quaint-looking and old, and the sections 
that remain contrast strangely enough with the plain 
white plaster that surrounds them. 

A Latin (Franciscan) and a Greek monastery have 
been added in modern times as wings to the old 
basilica. 

Much of the business of the town consists in the 
manufacture and sale of crosses, beads, and other 
religious ornaments. A native merchant, who is a 
Greek Christian, showed us much attention, going 
with us through the church and into the grotto, 
where he devoutly kissed the stones, and then turned 
us over to the monk who would show us the Latin 
part. Before parting, however, he very politely 
requested us to visit his shop. Whenever a man 
shows you the slightest attention in this country you 
may know he sees backsheesh at the end of it, in 
some form — either under the disguise of business, or 
as a direct bestowment. This man told us that he 
had hQ&n at the great Philadelphia Exposition, and 
that the boys had thrown stones at him on the 



SADDLE AND TENT. 385 

streets of that Christian city. For once I felt 
ashamed of my country — though, truth to tell, it was 
not the first time. 

We walked through the town, and went into 
several shops where the people were making beads 
and other trifles. We were interested in the sim- 
plicity and efficiency of their implements, and the 
great rapidity with which they turned off their work. 

At one place we stopped a moment to see a very 
simple little mill grinding, turned by one horse. We 
found a beautiful woman tending it, having her child 
with her. Both mother and child were seated on 
the ground just outside the circle of the lever. She 
was remarkably fair, and turned a pair of most 
expressive black eyes upon us, at the same time 
pointing to the child, and saying backsheesh. It was 
one of the few instances of such a demand being 
made upon us here. 

Our luggage had gone by a more direct route to 
Solomon's pools, only an hour from Bethlehem. 
Some of our party desired to visit what is said to be 
the cave of Adullam, but is probably not really so. 
Upon inquiring we found that the distance was too 
great ; so we returned to our camp, taking the village 
of Artas in the way. Here we enjoyed an unex- 
pected treat. The village is built on the side of a 
long ridge, which is separated from another ridge by 
a little flat valley not more than two hundred yards 
wide, I should think. For quite a distance the valley 
is perfectly straight, the edges being sharply cut 
against the foot of the ridges. The limestone ridges, 
with slight vegetation, showing masses of rock, and 
having only a few patches in wheat, which, though 

13 



3S6 SADDLE And TfiNT. 

thin and small, offering a mitigated verdure to the 
eye, set off the beauty of the little valley to perfec- 
tion, for it was the greenest thing we had seen since 
we left the valley of the Nile. Every foot of it was 
in cultivation, so that it formed a strip of luxuriant 
verdure between the barren hills. It was a thing of 
beauty that I can never forget. 

Above Artas the valley divides, and becomes 
wider, though the fields, while they are larger, are 
less luxuriant. On one branch of it are the famous 
Pools of Solomon. There are three of them, situ- 
ated one above another along the course of the val- 
ley. They are fed, it is said, by several springs, but 
especially by a very flush one, which is taken from 
the side of the mountain above, first into a small 
basin, and then by an underground channel into a 
shallow well, from which it is drained into the upper 
pool. In addition to these perennial sources, it is 
supposed that formerly they were filled during the 
rainy season to their full capacity. They are very 
large and deep, and the perpendicular sides are 
lined with stone walls. 

Some suppose they were built by Solomon, as he 
mentions pools that he had made, in Ecclesiastes, 
and perhaps in the Canticles. Others assign their 
construction to a later date. They are only about six 
miles from Jerusalem, and there can be no doubt that 
they were originally intended to supply the city with 
pure water. A wonderful conduit connects them 
with the city. This conduit is made of stones, 
actually bored through, the bore being perhaps six 
or eight inches in diameter, and the stones fitted into 
each other so as to be water-tight, after the fashion 



SADDLE AND TENT. 38/ 

of joining the sections of a water-pipe in our day. 
The conduit thus formed was laid in rubble-work 
with a cement that remains perfect to this day. It 
passes over the tops of the intervening hills, which 
are much higher than the pools, and so conveyed 
the water to the city on the syphon principle. It 
was a wonderful work, no matter who did it. It is 
now broken at one place, so as to be useless. 

Herod constructed another conduit from the pools 
along the ridge above the valley of Artas, and so on 
to Bethlehem. This descends by a slight grade all 
the way, and still flows, being open at short intervals, 
and tapped at several points for purposes of irriga- 
tion. 

After a delightful swim in the middle pool, we had 
a choice dinner, spent two or three hours in writing, 
and then slept profoundly till five o'clock, when 
we were roused for an early breakfast and a long 
ride. 

We must see Hebron, where the bones of the 
patriarchs lie in the cave of Machpelah, which Abra- 
ham bought of the sons of Heth, ''for a possession of 
a burying-place," when Sarah died, and he must 
needs " bury his dead out of his sight." There 
seems to be no doubt that the mosque in Hebron 
covers this very cave. Christians are never per- 
mitted to enter this building except on the author- 
ity of a special firman from the Sultan. Even then 
they cannot see the inner sanctuary, and as to the 
cave itself, it is entered by no one. 

Stanley and other distinguished archaeologists are 
of opinion that if the cave is ever opened the em- 
balmed body of Jacob will be found in it. 



388 SADDLE AND TENT. 

A good many Jews have recently settled here, and 
built a synagogue, and there are a few Christians, 
but the great mass of the people are Mussulmans of 
the most bigoted class. As we rode out of the city 
some rude boys cursed us, and threw pebbles after 
us, reminding us of the boys of Philadelphia. One 
of the pebbles struck me on the shoulder, but it was 
so small as not to inflict any bruise. 

As we approached the city we saw large vine- 
yards, on the very ground, may be, from which the 
Eshcol clusters were taken. The country still 
abounds in grapes. The marks of industry here 
reminded us of the neighborhood of Bethlehem, 
though there are no such recent improvements here 
as there. 

I ought to have said that in the city we visited a 
large pool, walled with stone, which they call the 
Pool of Abraham. 

A mile or so from town we visited the great oak 
which they call Abraham's oak. It is certainly very 
near the spot where Abraham's tent was pitched 
under the oak of Mamre. Just above the oak there 
is a ridge from which the " vale of Sodom " may be 
seen — the only point in all this region from which it 
is visible. There, no doubt, the patriarch stood 
when he saw the smoke of the burning cities of the 
plain. 

The Russians have bought quite an extensive tract 
of land embracing this old tree, and are building a 
large monastery near it. The tree they have sur- 
rounded with a strong wall of stone. Under its long 
lateral branches, too heavy for their strength, they 
have set props. One of these great branches is 



SADDLE AND TENT. 389 

dead, and the tree itself must soon perish. We 
plucked a few of its leaves. 

Near it we passed along an extremely narrow lane 
between two stone fences, five feet high, built of the 
loose stone so abundant here. The corners and 
angles protrude suggestively from the perpendicular 
wall. If it had been a hundred miles east, over in 
Moab, I should have said that it was the very place 
where Balaam got his foot crushed. If he had noth- 
ing but sandals on, as I suppose was the fact, and 
his foot was pressed against one of these angles, it 
must have been sadly bruised. It was very provok- 
ing. No ordinary saint would be likely to keep his 
temper in such an emergency. 

We returned to Jerusalem that night. Within a 
few miles of the city we passed '' the tomb of 
Rachel." Many Jews come here to mourn. We 
looked in. Lamps were burning, and a few mourn- 
ers were sitting there, some mumbling over their 
books and some eating boiled eggs and drinking out 
of a bottle. 

The sky was overhung with heavy clouds, but as 
the city came in sight they parted just under the sun, 
as it stood a few degrees above the western horizon. 
The sun-burst upon the green fields that skirted the 
road made a striking contrast with the sombre cloud 
and with the heavy shadow that fell from it upon 
the distant mountains. I have witnessed death- 
scenes where the gloom and the glory were in the 
same near contrast. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

BETHEL — SHILOH — NABLOUS. 

WHEN we returned to Jerusalem from Hebron 
a strong north wind was blowing, which, to 
me, was distressingly cold. I took refuge in 
the hotel, but my companions slept in camp, outside 
of the wall. They acknowledged in the morning 
that the tent had proved an unpleasant place, the 
wind was so strong. For two days it remained 
quite cool. 

Friday morning, April 13, we took our final leave 
of Jerusalem. From the top of Scopus I had my 
last view of the city. I paused for some moments, 
gazing upon the great dome of the Church of the 
Holy Sepulcher, fixing my mind on the sufferings of 
our Lord, and dismissing, as far as possible, all 
thought of the humiliating fictions that a fanatical 
credulity has attached to the place, and the super- 
stitious ceremonies that have been intruded upon it. 
*'I beheve that He suffered!" and think it likely that 
his sufferings culminated and were "finished" on 
this hill. With such thoughts I bowed my head, 
and reined my horse northward on the Damascus 
road, following slowly after my companions, who 
had gone on. I shall never see this city again. 
Shall I see the Jerusalem above ? God grant it in 
infinite mercy ! 



BETM^L — ^SttlLOtt— NASLOUS* 39 1 

For a long time Neby Samwil raised his tower- 
crowned head on our left, rising above all other 
elevations in our view. 

A few miles from the city, not over four or five, I 
should think, we passed ** GIbeah of Saul." This was 
*'a city set on a hill," the elevation being oval and 
quite high. Some old ruins remain. The ascent is 
rather difficult on horseback. I did not undertake 
it, but my companions were more adventurous, and 
were rewarded by a grand view of the city. 

We halted for once at a village, the name of which 
I do not recall, where we saw ruins of a mediaeval 
building — a church no doubt built by the Crusaders. 
Our dragoman, who, so far, proved to be a fine fel- 
low, proposed to us that we should have our lunch 
spread in the village khan. The others objected. 
They affirmed that it looked dirty, and w^as no 
doubt full of fleas, to all which I made no reply, for 
it was too true ; but I was resolved to see life in as 
many phases as I conveniently could. It was a little, 
nondescript, one-story affair, partly of stone, and 
partly of mud. In one corner was a middle-aged 
woman, with a kindly face, preparing a dinner of 
herbs by a handful of fire In a brazier. Near her sat 
a young man in faded good clothes, whom we had 
seen In Jerusalem, chatting with her in a pleasant way. 
Several men, just like all oihers of the common class 
here, were sitting about the door outside, talking 
very loud, and smoking the narglle. Our lunch-car- 
pet was spread in the middle of the floor, and we fell 
to work upon it with a will, whereupon the man in 
faded clothes handed us a paper. Poor fellow, he 
was of a genus and species we had been long familiar 



392 BETHEL — SHlLOH — NABLOUS. 

with. Genus, beggar ; species, beggar with a certifi- 
cate. The certificate was from a missionary, and 
stated expHcitly that he knew nothing of the bearer. 
Some things in Palestine are much the same as in 
America! . 

We reached camp early at Beteen — Bethel. The 
present village is not supposed to be on the site of 
the old town, but in the near vicinity. Of this I sup- 
pose there can be no doubt. We were on ground 
covered with sacred memories. Abram, after leav- 
ing ''the place of Sechem," had pitched his tent be- 
tween Bethel on the west side, and Hai on the east. 
This was upon his first entrance into the country. 
To the same place he returned after his visit to 
Egypt, and a considerable sojourn at Hebron. Here 
occurred the quarrel between Lot's herdsmen and 
his. The pasturage is not the most abundant here- 
abouts, and this circumstance might possibly have 
been the occasion of the strife. On one of these 
very hills Abram and his nephew stood when they 
viewed the country to the east and to the west, and 
agreed to part in peace. Here Jacob slept on that 
memorable night when he was fleeing from his angry 
brother, and took of the stones of the place for his 
pillow, and then also, in the morning, to build an 
altar. Stones! there is little else but stones. The 
earth is made of mountains here, and the mountains 
are made of rocks. Ai, near to Bethel, and east of 
it, was the next place taken by Joshua after Gilgal 
and Jericho. Bethel played a not inconspicuous part 
in the time of the Judges, and appears occasionally 
in later history. 

Of course we must look around a little here. We 



BETHEL SHILOH — NABLOUS. 393 

rode out Into the supposed neighborhood of AI, and 
then ascended one of the loftiest eminences in sight. 
What a view ! We saw all the lower reaches of the 
Jordan valley, and the upper end of the Dead Sea. 
At the same lime, this hill must have been very near 
Abram's tent, between Bethel and Ai. It was the 
most eligible point anywhere near from w^hich to 
view the country. Was this the very hill on which 
Abram and Lot stood when the patriarch so gener- 
ously gave his kinsman choice of all the extended 
domain in the scope of their vision? I think that 
very likely. From the general lay of the country, I 
ventured a conjecture as to the route by which 
Joshua came up from Gilgal, in the valley, to attack 
Ai in its mountain fastnesses. But of course that 
was mere conjecture. 

How probable and real the incidents of Old Testa- 
ment history appear to a man who studies them here 
where they occurred ! Times, distances, situations, 
all agree in the most evident way with the state- 
ments of the narrative. Even the very manner of 
life he witnesses tends to illustrate the history. 
[What an odd n I have made in the word "tends"! 
The Turkish soldier who is guarding our tent for the 
night fired kis gun unexpectedly, and startled me a 
little. It is nine o'clock p. m.] 

The next morning we rode on, over mountains, 
through deep ravines, over rocks, rocks, rocks. In 
some places the road is full of loose stones, in others 
it passes along over the solid limestone, which is 
worn into ugly holes and ruts by ' thQ jaoofs of 
horses and donkeys that have been passing over 
jt for perhaps four thousand year^, I suppose Abrfr 



394 BETHEL SHILOH NABLOUS. 

ham drove his flocks and herds along this very path. 
Probably Esau and his horsemen rode over it when 
he went to meet his brother at Mahanaim, and again 
when he returned to Mount Seir. Jacob also proba- 
bly passed over it with his flocks when he left Sechem 
and moved southward. Kings and armies passed 
over it many a time afterward, as well as thousands 
of caravans from Gilead, from Tadmor, from Damas- 
cus, from the Euphrates, to Jerusalem and Egypt. 
It must have been along this very way that Saul of 
Tarsus passed when he made his ever-memorable 
journey to Damascus. 

After three or four hours wc made a deflection 
from the main road to the right, to visit the ruins 
of Shiloh. These ruins are of a date more recent 
than the time of the chief glory of the place, though 
a place is pointed out where the rock was leveled — 
such is the tradition — for the tabernacle. There is 
no special material beauty in the situation of Shiloh 
or its immediate surroundings, to designate it as a 
place of religious solemnities. It is just such a place 
as might be found anywhere among these rocky hills. 
But one thing we observed, it is just at the point 
where the general character of the country begins to 
change. South of this, except the Maritime Plain — 
that is, the Plain of Sharon and Philistia- — and the 
valley of the Jordan, there are no valleys proper — 
only mountains and deep gorges between them. 
The valley of Artus is so narrow as to be scarcely an 
exception, though it is a lovely little strip. But here 
at Shiloh there are fruitful valleys spreading out to 
something like respectable proportions. In Judah 
and Benjamin all cultivation is in patches, larger or 



B^fHElL — SHILOH— ^fABLCll]S. 39^ 

smaller, on the mountain sides. But here in the ter- 
ritory of the tribe of Ephraim, the son of the beloved 
Joseph, who had one portion given him above his 
brethren, the " fair valleys " begin to appear. 

Returning toward the main road by a rather pre- 
cipitous way, we came to a fine large oak near a 
spring, where, of course, we would lunch. This we 
did, in company with some very pleasant English 
gentlemen. 

On starting again, we fell in with, and passed, a 
small train of mules, two of which were loaded with 
native ladies. A singular double-saddle was sus- 
pended across the mule, .so that one lady sat on each 
side of the mule, being covered in on all sides by a 
curtained frame. Each of these mules was led by a 
man. 

In a short while we ascended a ridge of considera- 
ble elevation, when lo ! a sea of verdure lay before 
us. It was the ** plain of Samaria," all waving with 
fine crops of wheat, just in full head, or just plowed 
for later planting of vegetables and sesame. We 
have seen nothing that can approach to this since we 
left the plain of Sharon, and indeed the wheat is 
better here than there — decidedly so. This plain 
lies between bold mountains, being probably as 
much as fifteen miles long, north and south, by six 
or eight wide. These dimensions I give as they 
struck my own eye. As we descended toward the 
valley we had nearly the full length of it in view, and 
toward its northern extremity, on the left side, was 
the bold, precipitous swell of Mount Gerizim. 

Our way lay for some distance through the center 
of this valley, but as we neared Mount Gerizim it 



396 BETHEL SHILOH — NABLOUS. 

inclined toward the base of the mountain. Soon we 
saw a narrow valley running up on the north side of 
Gerizim, due west, at right angles with the valley of 
Samaria, through which we had come. This very 
narrow valley lies between Gerizim and another 
mountain equally lofty and precipitous on the north 
side of it. I need scarcely say that this is Mount 
Ebal. Before we turned to the left into this small 
valley, our attention was called to a point near the 
mouth of it, but properly in the larger plain. It was 
Jacob's well, in the parcel of ground which he gave 
to his son Joseph. On riding to it v/e found it in a 
state of utter neglect. The earth at the top is much 
fallen in, and a stone lay on the opening of" it where 
it enters the rock. We had all promised ourselves 
a drink out of it, and one of t4ie party had a bottle, 
in which he was going to carry some of it home. 
But alas ! it was dry. I imagine it is filled up a 
good deal with rubbish. The winter rains some- 
times fill it, but now, even so early in the season as 
the middle of April, it is empty. 

Half a mile to the north-west is Joseph's tomb. 
Some eminent arch^ologists are disposed to accept 
this tomb as being genuine — not, of course, as th*e 
old building, but one occupying the same spot. It is 
a very plain structure, consisting of four walls, with- 
out a roof, and an oval tomb inside standing diago- 
nally with the line of the walls. The whole structure 
was much dilapidated, until within a few years past 
an English gentleman had it put in repair at his pri- 
vate expense. 

From Joseph's tomb, we turned up the valley 
already mentioned as separating Ebal from Gerizim, 



BETHEL — SHILOH — NABLotJg. 39;^ 

and riding about two miles came to the city of 
Nablous, which occupies the place of the old She- 
chem. The modern city was built by Vespasian, 
who gave it the Greek name Neapolis, which in the 
native speech has been corrupted into Nablous, as 
the same name in Italy has been shortened into 
Naples. The old Shechem, it is supposed, stood to 
the eastward of the present city about one mile. 

A stream of living water, fed by numerous springs, 
runs through this little valley, so that the water-sup- 
ply is abundant and accessible. The valley at the 
narrowest part I take to be about half a mile wide. 
Farther in it is considerably wider. It is covered 
with wheat, in full head now, most of which is very 
heavy. From the edges of the valley the mountains 
rise to their full height of over two thousand feet so 
precipitously as to render the ascent impracticable, 
or nearly so, except by a circuitous way, though 
some of our party ventured to descend at the steepest 
point of Mount Gerizim, after having gone up by the 
easier path. 

Our camp had been pitched on the west side of 
the city, and in approaching it we passed through 
the principal street, which Is paved with square 
blocks of limestone of different dimensions and 
somewhat irregular surface. These stones are worn 
so smooth by the human feet that have been coming 
and going over them for centuries, that I looked 
every moment for my horse to slip and fall, but the 
whole party passed through in safety. Nothing 
worse befell us than the shouting of Mussulman boys 
in our rear, " Nassara ! Nassara ! " How the little 
infidels would have enjoyed It If one of our horses 



BETHEL SHILOH NABLoUS. 

had come down and brought his rider sprawHng 
upon the ground ! 

It was Saturday evening, and we remained in 
camp here over Sunday. I have uniformly abstained 
from sight-seeing on the Lord's day, but in this 
instance I felt that it would be in keeping with the 
spirit of the day to ascend Mount Gerizim. Accord- 
ingly, our little party started out with a guide, going 
first to the Samaritan synagogue, where we met the 
high-priest. This building is quite removed from the 
principal thoroughfare, being situated on the foot of 
the sacred mountain, the approaches being by 
**ways that are dark," the streets being very nar- 
row, and some of them arched over for considerable 
distances. The synagogue itself, when v/e reached 
it, we found to be a small building, very plain, with 
uninviting surroundings. There is a small, open, 
paved court in front of it, closely surrounded with 
other buildings, in the center of which in an 
unpaved area of four or five feet square, are three 
small orange trees. The synagogue itself is small, 
the floor being covered with carpeting, except a nar- 
row strip, a foot lower than the rest, just inside of 
the door. The general plan of the interior is 
nearly square, with a recess to the left at the farther 
end. 

We found the high-priest a polite man, and rather 
fine-looking. He would have admitted us freely into 
his little sanctuary, if we would have "taken our 
shoes from off our feet," which we did not choose to 
do. But we stood on the strip of naked stone, just 
inside, while the priest brought us "the Book of the 
Law," an old parchment, rolled up after the primitive 



BETHEL SHILOH NABLOUS. 399 

manner, and kept In a cylindrical metallic case, 
which opened on one side, having hinges on the 
other. The case itself was covered with a cloth of 
wrought silk. This book is, as I understand it, in the 
Samaritan text. We told him we understood that he 
was in possession of a very ancient copy of the Law, 
and asked him if this was it. He answered frankly, 
no, and assured us that the oldest copy was rarely 
exhibited to any one. But after a brief pause he 
added, as I was a bishop, he would show it to me. 
How did he know I was a bishop ? That is more 
than I can tell. Then, again, was it genuine respect ^ 
for the Episcopal office ? or was it buncombe for back- 
sheesh f I cannot tell ; but one thing I do know, that 
is, that backsheesh was expected and paid. But my 
eyes were greeted with the sight of that old, old copy 
of the Pentateuch. It was kept in a case like the 
other, only this case was covered with two elegant 
piecc^s of cloth, one above the other, and w^as itself 
covered with raised figures, on one side ; one being a 
model of the front view of the old Temple on Ger- 
izim. Beside this, there was Moses's rod, Aaron's 
rod, the altar of sacrifice, and several other of the 
sacred objects contained in the Temple. The cover- 
ings were removed, the case opened, and a portion 
of the old pafchment spread before us. They claim 
for it a fabulous antiquity, and some good linguists 
who have seen it believe it to be properly referred 
to a date about coeval with the Christian era. 

I have devoted so much time to this topic on 
account of the singular character of this people. 
Here is a little knot of people that have continued 
together at the fot)t of Mount Gerizim through all 



400 BETHEL SHILOH NABLOUS. 

changes, maintaining the worship of the ancient 
Samaritan to this day, and preserving with the most 
scrupulous care their copies of the Book of the Law. 
For many ages their number has been small, and 
now the census shows but forty or fifty families. 
Yet this handful of men cling persistently to their 
traditions, lingering in the shadow of "this moun- 
tain" in which "men ought to worship," with a 
tenacious and enthusiastic attachment that the ages 
have not been able to wear out. Every year, at the 
time of the vernal new moon, they camp out on the 
, lofty summit of the sacred mountain for a full week, 
and kill the Passover, eating only unleavened bread, 
and worshiping the God of Abraham and of Isaac 
and of Jacob. 

We were told that the synagogue-worship would 
take place at the eleventh hour — five o'clock p. m. — 
and that our attendance would not be regarded as 
an Intrusion. It was an opportunity that we could 
not afford to let slip. 

Meanwhile we repaired to the little Baptist Mis- 
sion, where the pastor, the Rev. Mr. El Karl, a 
native of Palestine, but educated in England, was in 
the midst of his sermon. The hearers were all seated 
on the floor, their shoes having been left at the door. 
When we were disco verd, they politely drew to one 
side and the other, opening the way for us to pass 
through to a settee near the preacher's stand — for 
pulpit he had not. The greater number of auditory 
were thq children pf the Sunday-school, but thQ few' 
adult person^ present were remarkably fine-looking^ 
The pastor Jiini^elf had p.§ fin^ a, head and face ag 
79^1 )vilj %^% iu § gi9!}f]l'§ trayf 1. Thp cpmmpjajp 



BETHEL — SHILOH — NABLOUS. 4OI 

cants are only nine, but the Sabbath-school Is well 
attended, and the Mission is a handful of leaven in 
the meal. 

After the service we had some pleasant chat with 
the pastor and his intelligent Liverpool wife, and 
saw their three beautiful children, after which we 
made our way toilfuUy up, up, to the summit of 
Mount Gerizim. On the very top we found wheat 
fields. 

There are some very massive ruins here, and some 
are from early times — none, however, earlier than 
Justinian. But a rock is shown on which it is said 
the altar stood. I doubt, however, if this is worthy 
of credence. 

But we had a grand view of the great valley of 
Samaria, through which we had passed the day 
before, and of the valley and city of Nablous, with 
the " rock-ribbed mountains" on all sides. The 
green and fresh-plowed fields alternating in the val- 
ley presented a scene of exquisite beauty. Only 
forests were wanting to make the landscape as lovely 
as it was magnificent. To my eye no landscape can 
be perfect without them^ and they are nowhere' 
found in Palestine. There are, to be sure, in some 
places, olive groves that almost amount to forests; 
yet they are too limited and artificial-looking. Here 
and there, also, fig-orchards relieve the nakedness of 
the mountain-sides with a fresh and delightful ver- 
dure ; but they are only orchards. The free forests 
that nature mal^eg 3.re not here. 

The time had n9\y come for the accomplishrrient 
of a purpose long since formed by H^ and piyself-^ 
|}}9 reading of the blessings and curses, responsiyely, 



402 BETHEL — SHILOH — NABLOUS. 

on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, with a view to 
ascertain if the space between might be compassed 
with the human voice. We had detected the very- 
spot where this must have taken place, at first sight. 
There is no mistaking it. There is a natural rock-pul- 
pit on each of the mountians at the point of nearest 
approach to each other — the one just opposite to the 
other. At this point the level ground is, to my eye — 
for we made no measurements — about half a mile 
wide, and from the edge of the level ground to the 
rocks from which the responsive utterances must 
have been delivered, the ascent was perhaps a quar- 
ter of a mile on each side, putting the two at a dis- 
tance of a mile, or near it, on a straight line. 

In both directions from this point the valley 
widens, so that a countless host might be assembled 
in it and on the foot of the respective mountains. 
The man who sees the place once can never doubt 
as to the question of room for the people to staod, 
even upon the supposition that there were three mil- 
lions of them actually present. 

Mr. Hendrix took his stand on Mount Gerizim, 
and Mr. Samson on Mount Ebal. I and our guide 
stood in the valley between, when the reading com- 
menced. Every word, every syllable, every vowel, 
every consonant, pronounced by the two men 
reached my ear distinctly, except a sentence or two 
lost in the noise of some passing travelers on the 
road — and that notwithstanding a current of wind 
against the voice of Mr. Samson who was the more 
remote of the two from my position. More than 
that, Mr. Samson heard every word from the other 



BETHEL — SHILOH — NABLOUS. 46^ 

Side, and Mr. Hendrix heard nearly every word from 
Mr. Samson, though the wind was adverse. 

The narrative of the responsive reading of the 
blessings and curses here has been criticised as 
impracticable, but the fact demonstrates that it is 
not so. Whether it is the dense atmosphere of the 
narrow valley, or whether the rock walls of the 
mountains act as a sounding-board, I do not know; 
but I do know that the articulate utterances of the 
human voice reach out over this great space with 
astonishing distinctness. Before the reading began I 
conversed with both men as to the right position for 
them to occupy. 

What a scene was that when all the congregation 
of the tribes was assembled here in this valley, "with 
the women and the little ones," and the officers and 
elders and judges stood some on this side and some 
on that, these shouting out the blessings in unison, 
and those the curses, all the people — three millions 
— shouting back with one voice. Amen ! See Deut. 
xxvii., xxviii., and Josh. viii. 30, 35. 

After lunch Mr. Hendrix and Mr. Samson made 
the ascent of Mount Ebal to the top, while I rested 
in the tent, reading the word of God, meditating 
thereon. At the eleventh hour, promptly, we were 
at the Samaritan synagogue again. The worshipers 
were all men. They left their shoes in the court 
before the door. But few wore stockings, and all 
who did, but one or two, took them off. Most of 
them washed their feet before entering, for which 
purpose jars of water had been provided. Lamps 
were lighted within. We were told that chairs 
would be set for us inside if we chose to remove 



404 BETHEL— SMlLOli—NABLOUS. 

our shoes, otherwise we should be placed conven- 
iently before the door where we could witness every 
thing. We preferred the latter, as the weather was 
cool, and we were apprehensive of taking cold, not 
being accustomed to sit without shoes. 

The service began twenty minutes after the time 
— a circumstance not unlike what I have known in 
Methodist Churches at home. It was unique, and 
not unimpressive. The high-priest stood in the re- 
cess, and when he intimated that the services had 
begun, all stood in perfect silence for five minutes, 
and then he recited a sentence, to which the congre- 
gation responded, and then all in unison kept up a 
sort of recitative service, broken at intervals by bow- 
ing until their heads touched the floor, always in the 
direction of the place where the Temple stood on 
Mount Gerizim. Then some one would repeat a 
sentence or two, when all would rise, and standing 
upright, commence again the same sort of recitative 
exercise as before. Several kept their voices at a 
high key, others kept to a low tone. They were 
evidently all using the same words, but not repeating 
sentences over and over. Some of the boys had 
books, but all the older men rehearsed without any 
such aid. Nearly all impressed me as being very 
much in earnest. One elderly man, however, came 
out and chatted with us a little, two or three times, 
dropping his worship meanwhile. He had visited 
England, could speak English a little, and seemed 
greatly disposed to be social. We discovered at last, 
though, that he had an eye to business, as he desired 
us to go to his shop and buy some of the prayer- 
books, which we would probably have done if it had 



felETHEL — SHlLOH — NAfiLOtfS. 40? 

not been on the Lord's-day. My conviction is that 
backsheesh is at the bottom of ail the pohteness 
shown to a man in this country. 

The service continued for about forty minutes. 
Just at the close the high-priest held up the Book of 
the Lav/, which is much venerated by them. I 
understand they sometimes go forward and kiss it, 
but in this case they did not do so. 

I do not know on what principle the priesthood is 
maintained among them, whether by hereditary 
right or by selection, nor do I know what the 
priest's duties are in detail, but he is supported by 
the old Jewish method of the tithe. 

There were no women in the congregation — only 
men, but they impressed us as being intelligent, 
looking above the average of the people of this 
country. Their perpetuation is a phenomenon, on 
a smaller scale, as marvelous as the preservation of 
the Jews. The wonder is, that, since they exist at 
all, after so long a time, there should be so few of 
them, especially as they are perpetuated by natural 
increase. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

FROM NABLOUS TO TIBERIAS. 

I BELIEVE I omitted to state in the last chapter 
that the population of Nablous is estimated at 
about 13,000, and that it has a general air of 
prosperity above the average, perhaps, of Palestine 
towns. We broke up our camp there on Monday 
morning, April 16, and made our way northwest to 
the old city of Samaria, about three hours distant. 
It must be borne in mind that distances here are 
counted by hours, not miles. The country was 
never surveyed, so that no accurate estimate of the 
road is possible, but the travel by camel and donkey 
has been timed, and the native is at no loss to tell 
you the number of hours to any place. We came 
by a circuitous way, and were three hours on the 
road. In these mountain roads the hour is estimated 
at about three miles. We supposed that the bee- 
line would not exceed six or seven miles. 

Samaria was not the only, but, I suppose, the prin- 
cipal capital of the Kingdom of Israel after the revolt 
of the ten tribes. Shechem seems to have been the 
chief seat of religion, and Jezreel was for a time the 
residence of the perverse King Ahab. At a later 
day Herod had a palace here, and expended vast 
sums in improving and ornamenting the place. As 
a capital it was in a well-chosen situation, being cen- 



FROM N'ABLOUS TO TIBERIAS. 40/ 

tral to the territory to be governed, and surrounded 
by a beautiful and fruitful region. 

As we approached it we observed a decided 
change, in some respects, of the country, though the 
general features remain the same. There are the 
same bold limestone mountains, innocent of forests, 
with the strata of rock disclosing their ledges almost 
everywhere, the prospect being relieved here and 
there by ohve-groves and fig-orchards, with hedges, 
now and then, of enormous cactus — prickly pear. 
These features it has in common with the country 
farther south. But the valleys continue to increase 
in extent, there is more earth on the hillsides, with 
many instances of a grade adapted to easy cultiva- 
tion, and above all, a good supply of water from 
springs and running streams. Much of the wheat in 
Judea is thin and small, but here it is, not always, 
but generally, thick set and vigorous. 

But this year there has been a general failure of 
the latter rains. As a consequence, many fields are 
in pitiable case. Much grain is ready to die — espe- 
cially such as is in stony places, where it has no deep- 
ness of earth. Even some of the most luxuriant 
crops are beginning to dry up before the grain 
matures. Scarcity impends in consequence, and 
already the price of breadstuffs is up. 

Besides the larger valleys, we observed as we 
approached Samaria, a great deal of terracing on 
the mountain sides, securing a large additional area 
of cultivation. This adds much to the beauty of the 
country, both as the effect of terraced mountain 
sides on the landscape is very pleasant, and as it 
secures a wealth of verdure where otherwise there 



408 FROM NABLOUS TO TIBERIAS. 

would be little else than bare rocks. Here you see 
the bold hills in every direction, far and near, with 
successive terraces rising from the base to the sum- 
mit, every bench waving with green wheat. The 
landscape is as beautiful as it could well 'be in the 
absence of forests. 

In the midst of such scenery you see, in the dis- 
tance, the ruins of Samaria, on a hill well placed 
amidst surrounding elevations. There is still a small 
village here, which amounts to nothing; but the 
ruins are extensive and interesting. Among them 
there is a church, built, I believe, by the Crusaders, 
a considerable part of which remains standing. One 
basement-room is spread with mats, and used by 
Mohammedans as a place of prayer. 

Passing up the hill from this we came upon a clus- 
ter of stone columns, some standing in a good state 
of preservation, some prostrate, some broken off, 
leaving stumps erect, and some which, though still 
erect, are greatly worn by time. 

But the largest and most remarkable display of 
ruins is on the south side, where a triple row of sim- 
ilar columns is found. They were the ornamental 
supports of an elegant portico built by Herod, run- 
ning along the whole extent of that side of the city. 
They are standing now in the midst of a field of 
wheat. We did not ride along the whole extent of 
them, nor did we see the full length of the row, as 
it disappeared over the brow of the hill. It must 
be a niUe ,or two long. The extent an4 grandeur 
of such a poirtico, supporte4 by innumerable mono- 
lith columns, that remain, many of them, standing 
^nd perfect to this day, fyrnish another of the m^ny 



FROM NABLOUS TO TIBERIAS. 4O9 

proofs of the wealth, the luxury, and the despotism 
of the Oriental monarchs of the old times. They 
furnish, also, conclusive proof of the populousness 
and wealth of the country in former times. No 
despotism, however absolute and exacting, could 
grind out of this country now such magnificent 
and extensive structures, nor build such great cities. 
An hour farther upon our way we stopped under 
the shade of an olive-tree, in the midst of cultivated 
fields, and enjoyed our lunch all the more from the 
number oi fellaliin^ men and women, who clustered 
about us to gossip with our dragoman, and pick up 
the crumbs that we might leave. These people 
rarely eat meat, and they took our leavings as a 
treat. One man, especially, gnawed off all the ends 
of the chicken bones after we had stripped them and 
throv/n them away. He amused us by showing us 
how he had played the blind man before the recruit- 
ing officer, and so avoided the draft for the recent 
war. His art was really remarkable. He had the 
power to close his eyes, and, turning the balls 
upward, open them just enough to show a spot of 
dead-looking white. The ruse succeeded, his neigh- 
bors did not betray him, and he stayed at home with 
his family to cultivate his little patch and eat his 
bread and pulse in peace. Among our visitors was 
a woman, the counterpart of whom I have seen many 
a time at home, one who would be a notable woman 
in any rustic neighborhood; self-possessed, chatty, 
full of good sense, and evidently much deferred to 
by her acquaintances. There was also a damsel just 
grown up, and well-grown, dressed in coarse tow 
linen, with a sort of loose mantle of the same mate- 



410 FkOM NABLoUS I'd TIBERIAS. 

rial about her shoulders, a small hook for cutting 
grass and weeds in her hand, and a light line of 
tatooing around her chin. Her features were fine, 
indicating decided character. Her whole bearing 
and attitude were such as to command respect, and 
the set of her coarse garments had actually an air of 
elegance. It was remarked among us, that with 
early advantages of culture and association she 
would certainly have made a most attractive woman. 

In the saddle again, we turned out of our way to 
see Dothan, where Joseph sought his brethren, and 
from the midst of the green pastures of which he was 
sold to the passing merchants, who bought him on 
speculation for the Egyptian slave-market. Those 
sons of Jacob were evidently little better than 
nomadic savages. The slaughter of Shechem and 
the proposed murder and subsequent sale of their 
brother are indices of character which cannot be 
mistaken. One can feel hut little respect for them, 
even after making the fullest allowance for the bar- 
barous age in which they lived. 

We soon came to the crest of a ridge of consider- 
able altitude, and found the other side of it covered 
with wheat, without a single break by ledge or ter- 
race. At the foot of it the valley was wide, and all 
in wheat. Far up, also, on the foot of the hills be- 
yond, all was covered with the bearded grain. All 
the wheat in this country is bearded, and the beard 
is very long. After two weeks among hills whose 
ledges, laid successively above each other, were like 
stairways of giants laid in rock, this expanse of 
gentle slopes and level plains was a pleasant sight. 
To add to the beauty, brisk wavelets were chasing 



FROM NABLOUS TO TIBERIAS. 4II 

each other up the hill as the grain swayed and lifted 
itself in perpetual pulses before the wind, while vary- 
ing and ever-shifting tints of green came and went 
as if they were in a romp of hide-and-seek upon the 
moving surface. I felt a thousand lyrics, but, alas, 
like all the poetry that is in me, it began and ended 
in feeling, for it can never form itself into glowing 
speech, nor crystallize into rhythmic utterance. 

Our course was still west of north, and as we pro- 
ceeded the change already mentioned became more 
and more marked. We have wider valleys and 
lower hills. The mountains of southern Palestine 
are dropping toward the great plain of Esdraelon, 
that remarkable depression between them and the 
hills of Galilee — a depression that extends quite 
across from the Jordan on the east to the Mediterra- 
nean Sea on the west. 

No wonder that the sons of Jacob, when they left 
Shechem with their flocks, should go to Dothan. 
The valley of Dothan is larger than the one we 
passed through as we approached Shechem, and the 
hills afford fine pasturage. Probably in that early 
day the country was but partially under the plow, 
and it is likely that this magnificent plain itself was 
open to the roving herdsmen who might be on the 
lookout for good range. 

It is a circumstance to be noted that when Jacob 
sent his herds to this region his residence was at 
Hebron, six hours south of Jerusalem. To get this 
first-rate range for his stock, with abundant water, he 
sent them away from sixty to seventy-five miles. 
Near his home he depended almost entirely on wells 
and pools — artificial sources of supply — but in this 



412 FROM NABLOUS TO TIBERIAS. 

region there were running streams and perennial 
springs. There they must rove over a wide extent of 
rugged hills to obtain sufficient grass — here they 
could feed and fatten on a little space of level 
ground. To see the two regions is to have the 
whole matter explained. One can never be at a loss 
afterward for the reason of these old stock-growers 
for seeking a range so distant. They knew this 
country, having made their residence in the great 
valley near Shechem when they first came from the 
east, and fully understood its value for their pur- 
poses. 

At the northern extremity of the plain is an 
isolated oval hill on which it is said the city of 
Dothan stood, There is quite an extensive area of 
level ground on the top of the hill which might have 
served for a considerable town. It is now sowed in 
wheat. Accustomed as our horses were to climbing 
mountains, they were put to it to make this ascent, 
and on descending at another point we were com- 
pelled to dismount. 

At the foot of the hill is a remarkable well. The 
wall is of dressed stone, and each one is fitted to its 
place by as neat a joint as I ever saw in a stone 
building. It is under a roof, and nearly full of very 
good water. I sat on the curbing and dipped out 
the water with a glass. They call it the well of 
Joseph. 

We were a little late getting into camp at Gerin. 
Just a little distance from our camp we saw another, 
which was the estabhshment of some Arabs from 
Damascus on their way home. They joined our 
train at Nablous in order to be in a larger party, so 



FROM NABLOUS TO TIBERIAS. 413 

that they and we might travel with greater safety in 
the country near Damascus, said to be infested by 
thieving Bedouins. But in order, I suppose, to keep 
the ladies of their party properly secluded, they fixed 
their quarters for the night a quarter of a mile from 
us. There were four or five of these ladies, who were 
all carried by two mules in the same sort of fixture I 
have before described. I believe, in fact, they are 
the same party that we then saw. 

Gerin is a village situated just at the mouth of a 
ravine which opens into the plains of Esdraelon. 
To-morrow we are to cross that great plain. 

We are unfortunate, for once, having a foggy day 
for crossing the plain. It is not a dense fog, but suf- 
ficient to hide all remote objects. We were ex- 
tremely desirous to visit Mount Carmel, but found 
at the last that our time was too limited for this. It 
was in some measure a compensation that we should 
see it from the plain, and get a distinct impression of 
its general aspects and relation to the country. But 
the mist was sufficient to obscure it completely. Not 
less desirous were we to get a full view of the topog- 
raphy of the plain itself, and its situation with 
respect to certain historical points of great interest 
within and near it. Gilboa, Little Hermon, and 
Tabor, are, the two former wholly, and the latter on 
three sides, surrounded by it. It was the scene of 
some important battles in the early times — the 
victory of Barak and Deborah, the achievement of 
Gideon, and the defeat of Saul. Here, also, were 
enacted the crimes of Ahab and Jezebel, and the 
coup d'etat of the impetuous Jehu. 

Leaving Gerin we crossed the first arm of the plain, 



41 4 ' FROM NABLOUS TO TIBERIAS. 

and came to a low. spur of Mount Gilboa, near its 
western extremity. To our left we saw indistinctly 
through the fog the village which is supposed to oc- 
cupy the site of the ancient Jezreel. By the blunder 
of our dragoman we had taken a road that did not 
touch the town, and we determined that, inasmuch 
as there is nothing of any great interest to be seen 
there, we would not now make a detour to it. Our 
main purpose was secured in getting a view of its 
relation to the country. The precipitous part of the 
mountain of Gilboa was on our right. Having 
crossed over to the northern side of it, we turned 
eastward and rode a mile or two along its base to 
one of the remarkable fountains that spring out of it. 
It must have been just along here that the rout of 
Saul's army took place. I could imagine the de- 
feated host clambering the rocky and steep side of 
the mountain, all in rout and confusion, embarrassing 
each other's flight, with the shout of the victorious 
pursuers behind them, and the sword of the enemy 
doing bloody work upon the rearmost. There Jona- 
than, the noble prince, with a kinglier heart than the 
evil-minded monarch, fighting to the death, perished 
on his high places — and farther over, Saul, in the 
agony of despair, fell upon the point of his own 
sword. The sun of Israel was in bloody eclipse this 
day, and here the discreditable reign of the son of 
Cis came to an end. 

From this point we directed our course toward 
Little Hermon. Certainly this is a magnificent 
plain ; yet, while its soil is very rich, I am not cer- 
tain that its fertility is overrated. It is of a quality, 
at least in some parts where we passed through it, 



PROM NABLOUS TO TiBERtAS, 41^ 

not SO easily cultivated as that in the plain of 
Sharon, being, when dry, of a hard and stubborn 
nature. In this respect it reminded me of the adobe 
soil of Texas and California; but, unlike that, it is of 
a brown color instead of black. Yet, if it enjoyed 
the same advantages of cultivation I am not sure that 
it would not rival even that in productiveness. 
When I saw the little shovel-plow bobbing about in 
it, tearing it into clods, and leaving the greater part 
of the weejds and grass standing, I did long to see 
some strong, well-turned American plow, drawn by a 
powerful team, turning the surface over and burying 
the weeds in a clean-cut furrow. 

Having crossed that part of the plain which lies 
between Giiboa and Little Hermon, we came upon 
the village of Shunem, elevated just a little upon the 
swell of the ground at the foot of the mountain. At 
first it seemed to be made up of little round mud 
huts of one exceedingly low story, but on closer 
inspection we found the huts to be built of loose 
stones, found on the surface of the ground, and 
used in their natural shape, being 'afterward plaster- 
ed over with mud. A meaner-looking village can 
scarcely be found. The prophet who should come- 
and-go here now would certainly find no *' great 
woman " to entertain him, or build a chamber for 
him. As we rode through the narrow and filthy 
streets, fierce-looking yellow dogs, with bristles 
erect, flew at us on the flat tops of the houses, yelp- 
ing furiously, so near to us that we could have 
touched them with our fingers. It seemed to me 
that the town was built upon a mound made of the 
decay of ages. No doubt it stands on the very site 



4l6 FROM NABLOUS TO TIBERIAS. 

of the old Shunem, and the accumulation of ashes, 
filth, and fallen houses, has raised the area to its 
present elevation. 

In all cases I give the Scripture names of places 
instead of the present Arabic names. 

It was our purpose to go by the town of Nain, 
but another error took us so far past it before we 
discovered it that we had not time to return. The 
only object in visiting this village is to see the 
unquestionable spot where one of our Lord's most 
remarkable miracles was performed, and this we 
greatly desired. The aspects of the place, and the 
lay of the ground which constituted the back-ground 
of the scene, would have made it more real. 

By this time the fog was yielding a little, and the 
hills of Nazareth were in full view to the north, 
but still another reach of the plain was to be 
crossed. 

I should think a larger area of this plain must be 
in cultivation now than when Robinson was here. 
Much of the wheat is very large, and, with efficient 
cultivation, it would produce cereals sufficient to feed 
a yast multitude of people. 

It is not to be understood that this plain is a dead 
level. Far from it. Much of it reminds me of the 
undulating upland prairie of Missouri. There is just 
sufficient swell for good drainage. There are por- 
tions of it, however, that are level, and some places 
that are swampy. 

Geographically, it is a depression between the 
mountains of Samaria and those of Galilee, with the 
three independent mountains I have spoken of stand- 
ing within it. It extends quite across the country, 



FROM NABLOUS TO TIBERIAS. 41/ 

from the Mediterranean Sea on the west, to the Jor* 
dan and the Sea of Galilee on the east. 

This plain is bounded on the north by a line of 
bold hills of sufficient magnitude to be properly 
denominated mountains. They rise suddenly from 
the plains so steep as to be of rather difficult ascent 
on horseback. 

Toward their western extremity, on their southern 
slope, a ravine of perhaps two miles in length opens 
down to the plain. Toward its upper extremity the 
ravine, which is narrow below, makes a wider open* 
ing in the mountains, while other short ravines sweep 
suddenly down into it on all sides, with bold hill^ 
between them. The space thus made in the moun- 
tains is of an irregular oval form, at its upper ex* 
tremity, with bold hills standing around it. At the 
upper extremity, or near it, on the foot of one of the 
hills, or rather a little above the foot, on the some- 
what steep ascent, stands the town of Nazareth, just 
where it stood when the Lord, the holy child, Jesus, 
toiled in the carpenter's-shop, and grew in favor both 
with God and man. Back of it the mountain rises 
to a considerable elevation, having quite a precipi- 
tous "brow" at some points. 

Far out in the plain, as we approached it, we got a. 
sight of some of the houses that stand highest on the 
mountain, but as we came nearer the intervening hills 
concealed it. We saw it no more until we reached 
the summit of one of the hills that overlook the ra- 
vine, when it came all at once into full view. My 
first impression of it was decidedly pleasant. The 
houses are of stone, and generally of good size. 
Several monasteries and a Christian hospital are 



41 8 FROM NABLOUS TO TIBERIAS. 

large and imposing buildings. The houses rising 
rapidly above each other on the mountain side, and 
seeming to hang upon it as a sort of appendage, had 
a very pleasing aspect. 

The present population is estimated at 5,000 or 
6,ooo, 2,500 of whom are Greek Christians, and 2,000 
Mussulmans. There are about 100 Protestants. I 
doubt not that in our Saviour's time it was a smaller 
town. The present prosperity of the place, like that 
of Bethlehem, is due in a measure to its Christian 
memories. Many of its inhabitants are here simply 
because it is Nazareth. These great monasteries, 
and this fine hospital, owe their existence solely to 
that fact. Indeed, I myself felt that it would be a 
delightful thing to spend the rest of my days where 
my Lord and Master lived and toiled so long. It 
requires but slight effort of the imagination to make 
the very hills seem consecrated. 

Soon after reaching our tent we started out for a 
stroll through the narrow streets of the town. The 
first place we visited was the Latin Monastery. The 
building has been destroyed and rebuilt several 
times during the long ages of its existence, much of 
the old material being used in successive reconstruc- 
tion. Evidences of this are seen in the very appear- 
ance of the stones in the wall. We found excava- 
tions just being made for the foundation of a new 
wing of the edifice. These excavations disclosed a 
buried wall of a very ancient date, which had once 
formed a part of the building. We were surprised 
to find a two-horse wagon, used for hauling stone — 
the only wheeled vehicle we saw in Palestine except 
those which ply between Jaffa and Jerusalem. Ah ! 



FROM NABLOUS TO TIBERIAS. 419 

those Germans of the Temple community — four of 
them are here, and they are the proprietors of this 
wagon. 

Entering the monastery we found several monks 
engaged in their devotions, being on their knees, and 
reciting their prayers aloud. An elevated recess is 
called the chapel of the angels. This is ornamented 
with a large painting representing a number of 
angels, but I did not study the picture to determine 
whether they were connected with the Annunciation, 
or the birth of the Lord. The fact is that these 
idolatries, fastening themselves like destructive /^/^J^ 
upon the scenes of our Lord's life, pain me so much 
that I pay but little attention to them. This part of 
the monastery is ornamented rather gorgeously. 
Descending a flight of steps we enter the small 
" Chapel of the Annunciation," which has a niche 
resembling those in the grotto at Bethlehem. Lights 
are perpetually burning here, and of course much 
superstitious folly comes into expression. 

From this place we threaded the streets in order 
to see the town as it is, and especially the quarter 
occupied by the workshops of mechanics. Black- 
smiths', shoemakers', saddlers', and other shops, we 
saw in numbers, but almost began to despair of find* 
ing a carpenter's shop — the sort of all others we 
desired to see. But what place is there for car^- 
penters where all the houses — walls, floors, roofs, 
stairways — are made of stone. Stone yards we saw 
in abundance, but no carpenter's shop. The nearest 
approach to it was the workshop of a cabinet-maker. 
Was it so in our Lord's day ? and was this the trade 



420 FROM NABLOUS TO TIBERIAS. • 

of Joseph ? It is certainly the nearest alhed to car- 
pentering of anything we have found. 

From the streets we ascended to the summit of 
the ridge back of the town. This ridge is the back- 
bone of the system of hills in which Nazareth lies. 
We stood at the head of the ravine, the whole 
extent of which we had in view, but the town itself 
was concealed from our sight. Turning our faces 
northward, the hills melt away into a beautiful valley, 
beyond which another range of low mountains 
?Lppear, while between us and the valley are two 
considerable villages. Turning to the left and look- 
ing in a south-west direction, we get our first glimpse 
of Mount Carmel. 

Returning eastward along the ridge, and so ap- 
proaching the town by a circuit, we came upon a 
very fine view of it from the side opposite to that on 
which we approached it. 

Just at the foot of the hill, on the east side of the 
town, is the " Fountain of the Virgin." It is the 
only spring in the place, and there are few if any 
cisterns, for the people seem all to come here for 
their supply of water. The water is carried by 
underground pipes into a reservoir of stone, which is 
roofed over, and is conducted out of it in two stone 
spouts, which project from the lower side. There 
seems to have been formerly a stone pavement here, 
but it is all broken up, and a puddle of mud and 
water six inches deep, and several feet wide, is 
formed by the dripping water. We saw the pool at 
mid-day and at dusk the day we arrived, and at 
early breakfast-time the next morning, and there 
was always a crowd of women, mostly maidens, with 



FROM NABLOUS TO TIBERIAS. 421 

water-jars, each waiting her turn to fill her jar. 
Sometimes one would be delayed, I should think, for 
half an hour. The jar is set under the stream that 
drops from one of the two spouts I have mentioned, 
which is so small as to require several minutes to fill 
the vessel. There the barefooted damsels stand and 
chat, and fill their *' waterpots," which are generally 
large enough, I suppose, to contain two of our 
ordinary blue buckets full, and then, one assisting 
another, each raises her big jar, poises it on her 
head, and walks away up the steep streets. It 
seems to be quite a time of gossiping for the girls, 
and, truth to tell, there are generally some grown-up 
boys sauntering around, with nothing in the world to 
bring them to the place. But happeni7ig to be there, 
they join in the gossip, not without interest, appar- 
ently. 

This fountain, it is said, was formerly a little up on 
the foot of the hill, where the Greek Monastery now 
stands. When we visited this Monastery we saw an 
ornamented apartment which they called the 
" Chapel of the Annunciation," which, according to 
the tradition, covers the fountain or well where the 
angel Gabriel appeared to the mother of our Lord. 
A goblet, with the string attached, was dropped 
through a hole not more than six inches in diameter, 
and brought up full of pure, cold water for us to 
drink. 

It was with extreme reluctance that we left this 
place at the end of so short a visit. I had a great 
desire to linger among its hills. I have no supersti- 
tious veneration for holy places. Any hill which 
God has made is as holy as those trodden by the feet 



422 FROM NABLOUS TO TIBERIAS. 

of his Incarnate Son; but there is an influence in 
these associations which tends to promote devotion 
and piety. These are the very hills he clambered 
over ; these flowers are of the same species as those 
he gathered ; the distant reaches of hill and valley 
seen from these summits constitute the frame-work 
in which his life was set. It zvas an opportunity 
most blessed to spend twenty hours in and near the 
town of Nazareth. 

At a point some five miles eastward from the 
town, the Nazareth range of mountains sends out 
rather a low ridge, south, into the edge of the plain of 
Esdraelon. This ridge terminates in an oval moun- 
tain of greater elevation than any other in the entire 
range. Though thus connected with the range 
behind it, this mountain stands fairly out in the plain, 
and constitutes a very prominent, if not the most 
prominent, object in the landscape. This is Mount 
Tabor, which has generally been taken to be the 
Mount of Transfiguration. Recent criticism tends 
to discredit this view. Some are inclined to locate 
that great event in Mount Hermon, as it occurred 
V^ery near the time of our Lord's only recorded visit 
to "the coast of Cesarea Philippi." I shall not enter 
into the controversy, much less undertake to settle 
the question. It seems most likely that it took place 
in one or the other; but even that is not certain. 

On our way from Nazareth to Tiberias we had our 
choice to go by Cana or Tabor, and preferred the 
latter. 

A considerable part of the ascent was made on 
horseback. From the point where we left our horses 
the path is extremely tortuous, seeking an easy 



FROM NABLOUS TO TIBERIAS. 423 

grade. Proceeding slowly, we reached the summit 
with less fatigue than we had anticipated. Two 
monasteries stand on the plateau, Latin and Greek. 
The Latin occupies the more elevated position, and 
we therefore visited it. It is kept by a single Italian 
monk, with some native attendants. From the top 
we had a magnificent view. Somewhat to the west 
of south there rose in a clear atmosphere — for we 
had a fine day — the ridge of Little Hermon. On its 
side were two villages distinctly visible, even to the 
naked eye. That to our left was Endor, the other 
Nain. They are about half-way up the mountain 
side. I could imagine the king, forsaken of God, in 
camp at the foot of the mountains of Gilboa, which 
we had also in full view farther to the south-west, on 
the eve of a bloody battle with the Philistines, who 
were in camp at Shunem, near the point of Little 
Hermon. The silence of God toward him conspired 
with a guilty conscience to make him doubtful of the 
issue. He cannot brave the conflict without some 
intimation from the awful realm of the unseen world. 
He hears of a witch — a medium — a spiritist — at 
Endor. Attended by a few of his servants, he makes 
his way stealthily, by night, across the strip of plain 
between the two mountains, having the enemy's 
camp on his left, crosses the ridge at the base of 
which the Philistines lay, and, descending half-way 
upon the other slope, finds the object of his misera- 
ble adventure. It would occupy, perhaps, three 
hours, or less, to go, and as much time to return. 
What a horrible night! — and what a horrible day 
succeeded ! 

Beyond Gilboa, and more to the west, was Mount 



4 24 FROM NABLOUS TO TIBERIAS. 

Carmel, stretching somewhat dimly upon the horizon. 
Turning northward we had the mountains of GaH- 
lee in full view, and to the right of them — yes, it was 
so — a strip of water. It was the edge of the Lake 
of Galilee. To the eastward lay the valley of the 
Jordan, and the mountains of Gilead beyond, in full 
vision. 

Back of the monastery are some old ruins of great 
interest to the antiquary, whose knowledge of archi- 
tecture enables him to classify such remains, and 
assign them to their proper era. 

Was this the Mount of Transfiguration ? For 
aught I know it was. If so, what a glory crowned 
this summit once ! 

After remaining as long as prudence would allow, 
descending rapidly, we heard Hazeez calling. Ha- 
zeez had been left in charge of our horses and our 
lunch. We did not know but the Bedouins had 
attacked him, he called so lustily ; but the faithful 
Arab was only solicitous for us, lest we might lose 
our way in the mountain. 

As we descended toward the plain we met a 
woman who had been weeping till her eyes were 
swollen. She had lost her donkey. After a brief 
colloquy we proceeded on our way, and she went en 
wailing with a very bitter cry. My sympathies were 
deeply touched, and the more when our dragoman 
explained to us the cause of her distress. She be- 
longed to a company of pastoral Bedouins whose 
camp we would soon pass. Having been on some 
laborious errand, and been riding several hours, she 
dismounted to take a little rest, and let the donkey 
feed. Unintentionally she fell asleep, and awoke to 



FROM NABLOUS TO TIBERIAS. 425 

find the donkey gone. For several hours she had 
been seeking him, and if she returned to the camp 
without him her husband would give her a savage 
beating. **That is the way these Arabs do," said 
our dragoman, himself an Arab. If the women of 
America could only realize what Christ has done for 
them they would never rest till the gospel should be 
preached over the whole face of the earth. 

We were soon in a comparatively level plain, 
which may be properly regarded as the north-eastern 
extension of the plain of Esdraelon. It is perhaps 
1,000 feet above the level of the Sea of Galilee. In 
a few miles we began to descend toward the sea, 
where the ground again assumes a somewhat moun- 
tainous aspect. 

Soon the waters of the sea appear in their deep 
bed, and we hasten on to find the stars and stripes 
floating over our tent on the shore, just south of the 
city of Tiberias. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

SEA OF GALILEE. 

I HAVE said, in a former chapter, that the 
plain of Esdraelon is about i,ooo feet above 
the level of the Lake of Galilee. Sweeping 
round the east side of Mount Tabor, and stretching 
out east and north-east, it finally breaks into ridges 
as it descends toward the river and the lake. Near 
the edge of the plain, and perhaps as much as three 
miles from the sea, is an elevation of rather singular 
shape, which is distinguished as the traditional 
Mount of Beatitudes, on which the Sermon on the 
Mount was delivered. Some intelligent men are 
disposed to regard this tradition with favor. There 
is nothing in the sacred narrative to contradict it, 
and it seems, upon the whole, to be at least as likely 
to have been the scene of the great gathering to 
which our Lord opened his mission in a formal dis- 
course as any other height in the neighborhood. It 
has been remarked that there is a place on the side 
of it where a vast assembly could be conveniently 
placed with the speaker elevated somewhat above 
them. This hill was a mile to our left, but as the 
day was far spent we contented ourselves with this 
distant view, which gave us a clear notion of its rela- 
tion to the surrounding country. 

Descending some steep and long breaks, we came 



SEA OF GALILEE. 42/ 

all at once upon a full view of the lake, which 
seemed almost at our feet. We had descended 
from the plain by a grade so steep and long that I 
supposed we must be well down to the level of the 
water. Far from it. 

Two things strike the visitor instantly upon his 
first sight of this remarkable sheet of water — the 
depth of the basin in which it stands, and the small- 
ness of the lake itself It seems as if this place must 
have been dug into the earth for the very purpose it 
serves. It is not only a lake in a mountainous 
region, but a lake the surface of which is more than 
200 feet below that of the ocean. It lies in the very 
bowels of the earth. 

The smallness of the lake almost startles you. 
The shore on the opposite side lies so near you that 
you can scarcely think of it as the *' country of the 
Gergesenes " and of the '^ Gadarenes," v/hich our 
Lord took ship to visit. You may be ever so fa- 
miliar with the facts, of the case, and say to yourself 
beforehand, *'This lake is only six or seven miles 
wide," yet you will not be prepared to see the very 
gullies in the shore on the other side. But so it is. 

Our camp was at Tiberias, on the west shore of 
the lake, about midway between its northern and 
southern extremities. We were south of the town, 
and within thirty or forty yards of the water's edge. 
My companions, young men both of them, were 
eager for a bath. Their ardor, was, I confess, infec- 
tious. We were all soon laving our bodies in the 
beautiful clear waters of that sea which had seemed 
lialf divine to us from our childhood, as it reflected 



428 SEA OF GALILEE. 

the radiant presence of Him whose name glorifies 
every object associated with it. 

We found the shore at this point covered with 
water-worn pebbles and small stones, and all along 
the edge was a line of small univalve shells, thrown 
up by the ripples. They are innumerable, and our 
party gathered a quart of them in a few minutes. 

Upon consultation with our dragoman, we deter- 
mined to go by boat the following morning to Tell 
Hum, the traditional site of Capernaum, sending our 
horses to Kahn Minyeh, where we would meet them. 
There are only four or five boats at Tiberias, all of 
which are the property of one man. We sent a 
message to him to engage his services. After night- 
fall he appeared at our tent door, a well-dressed and 
good-looking man, and was ready to take us to Tell 
Hum and Kahn Minyeh for a pound sterling. Our 
dragoman protested against it as an exorbitant 
charge, and offered ten shillings, whereupon the 
independent fisherman turned abruptly away without 
^ word, at which indignity the dragoman flew into a 
great rage, followed him out, and assailed him with 
hot words, I suppose, as we heard much loud talk. 
In the end we engaged him for a Napoleon, which 
we thought reasonable enough. 

In the morning we found our boatman prepared 
and disposed to serve us efficiently, having engaged 
a double set of hands to relieve each other, as we 
desired to make the run as rapidly as possible. 
Rowing up to town we stopped to take on a supply 
of provisions for the day, as the boat would probably 
be out all day; whereupon one of our party quoted, 
" Children, have ye any meat?" Small as it was, the 



SEA OF GALILEE. 429 

incident affected me strangely and deeply, bringing 
our Lord and the twelve into vivid expression before 
my mind. 

Supplies being brought on board, we started again> 
but soon brought up under a stone wall which pro- 
jected out into the water, on which a net had been 
spread out to dry. This was taken out and stowed 
in the boat, being very deftly handled, and laid in 
neat folds from which it could be paid out without 
becoming entangled with itself. So here we werd 
on the Lake of Galilee in a fisherman' s boat I This 
was more than we had bargained for — better than 
we anticipated. The proprietor stood behind, man-* 
aging the rudder and giving orders. We occupied 
the seat just in front of him., and before us was the 
crew, an exceptionally good-looking set of men, ply- 
ing the oars with good-will, chatting and laughing in 
a very pleasant way. I could almost imagine that 
our chief was such a man as Peter, for he was a 
rather brusque and impulsive, but evidently gener- 
ous-hearted man, of strong character. 

The sun was bright, the water smooth, and every 
thing propitious. An infinite peace seemed to be 
diffused like a spirit throughout the firmament above, 
over the hills around us, and through the waters 
beneath. Peace ! yes ; not a dead repose, but a 
vital peace. It was as if the Prince of Peace were 
breathing upon us as upon the disciples, imparting 
the benediction that his words expressed. Surely 
the baptism of his presence was upon us and upon 
the scene around us ! The sun, at ten degrees above 
the heights of the eastern shore, flamed forth his 
radiance with uncommon brilliancy. 



430 SEA OF GALILEE. 

About eight miles of vigorous rowing in a straight 
line brought us to Tell Hum. To complete the 
experiences of the boat the sail was raised to catch 
a favorable breeze ; but it proved to be but a 
momentary gust. So we sailed as well as rowed. 

At Tell Hum, looking southward, we had the 
entire lake before us. The northern end is an 
irregular oval, around which the land rises in a 
grade that is sufficiently easy for cultivation. We 
observed a good many wheat-fields dotting this slope. 
Indeed, on the north-west^ a plain of about five miles 
square lies upon the shore — the plain of Gennesaret. 
0f course it is not an exact square, but I give the 
©xtent of it proximately. It is elevated but a very 
little above the surface of the water. The fertility of 
this small tract is something fabulous. Its northern 
extremity is at Kahn Minyeh, which Robinson sup- 
poses to be the real site of Capernaum, instead of 
Tell Hum, where the tradition has placed it. The 
southern extremity is at Magdala, the home of her 
out of whom seven demons were cast, at which place 
the lake has its greatest width, the shore-line bearing 
lip westwardly to this point, and then curving toward 
the north-east. At Magdala the shore becomes 
precipitous, and continues so to the southern 
extremity, except that it recedes somewhat at Tibe- 
rias. About opposite to Magdala, also on the east- 
ern side, the shore becomes precipitous. Upon the 
southern extremity the plain of the Jordan opens. 
The general contour then shows sloping shores 
around the northern end of the lake, and precipitous 
chores on both sides along the southern part. 
Below Magdala the western shore encroaches upon 



SEA OF GALILEE. 43 1 

the lake, so that at the southern extremity it is only 
four and a half miles wide, while at Magdala it is 
seven and a half. The eastern shore more nearly 
approximates a straight line. 

As we stood there at Tell Hum, looking south, we 
saw, on the east side, though we could not, of course, 
locate it exactly, the "steep place" down which the 
possessed herd of swine ran violently, and were 
choked in the sea. It is literally what the phrase 
imports, not a precipice, but a steep place. To ouf 
left the river enters, but we cannot exactly see the 
place. To our left, also, removed a mile or two from 
the shore, is Chorazin, which we do not see. Near 
us, and in sight, if we could tell where exactly, was 
Bethsaida. Tradition has fixed it on our right, about 
a mile, where a spring-branch pours its flush current 
into the lake with a sufficient volume and fall to run 
a little mill. It would have been a delightful situa- 
tion for it. A mile farther to our right is Kahn Min^ 
yeh, south of west from our stand-point, which, as I 
have already said, some take, and certainly not with-^ 
out reason, to be the site of Capernaum, instead ot 
this. There the plain of Gennesaret sets in; and 
five miles farther, a little west of south, is Magdala, 
at the southern extremity of the little plain, and at 
the foot of a bold hill which juts up against the lake. 
Two or three miles a little east of south from it — for 
the shore trends eastward here — is Tiberias. A mile 
south of that is the hot spring, covered by a bath- 
house — and south of that, nothing. On the eastern 
shore, from one end to the other, there is — nothing. 

It is not to be supposed that at all the points I 
have named there are towns now. Far from it. In 



432 SEA OF GALILEE. 

the summer the hot baths are much resorted to from 
all over Syria for sanitary purposes, and during the 
season have quite a stir of life about them. Tiberias 
is a dirty, flea-infested town of 3,000 inhabitants, 
half of whom are Jews. It has no commerce, and 
the extent of its fisheries may be inferred from the 
fact that it has but four little boats, all owned by one 
man. I imagine the place gets nearly all its business 
from the visitors to the baths. At Magdala there is 
a very small village, and, as we saw it from the boat, 
it seemed a miserable place, as Bedeker says it is. 
Its present name is Majdel. ' At the traditional sites 
of Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Chorazin, there is 
nothing. The only signs of life on all this part of 
the lake are the little water-mill at the point which 
our boatmen called Bethsaida, and a few huts which 
the Bedouins occupy when they graze their flocks 
here, but which are now empty. 

What a contrast with the time when Tiberias was 
a flourishing city, and Capernaum almost rivaled it ; 
when Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Magdala, were 
Rustling towns ; when there were at least two Roman 
garrisons, one at Tiberias and one at Capernaum ; 
&nd when hundreds of boats dotted the sea with 
their white sails. Death, death, death ! ^' Woe unto 
thee, Chorazin ; Woe unto thee, Bethsaida ! " You 
have rejected Him and his mighty works. The bo!t 
that is to smite you is already forged. '' And thou, 
Capernaum — exalted to heaven — shalt be cast down 
to hell." This is one instance, at least, in which 
prophecy has taken effect, not only on persons, but 
on stones. Not one has been left upon another. All 
these silent and desolate shores are under the blight 



SEA OF GALILEE. 433 

of a curse — the curse of the rejected Messiah. The 
most fearful thing in the universe of being is love 
when it flames into jealousy. The wrath which is the 
most consuming is the wrath of the Lamb. "Let it 
alone this year " — it is the voice of Incarnate Love — 
of the Intercessor. " I will dig about it and dung 
it" — I will exhaust all the resources of cultivation 
upon it — it is the labor of Incarnate Love. " Then, 
after that," if it remain unfruitful, "thou shalt cut it 
down." Works that would have brought Tyre and 
Sidon to repentance, M^ere done here to no avail — ■ 
and then came the ax, which was already lying, 
whetted, at the root of the tree. " Cut it down." 
Ay ! it has been dug up by the roots. Death, death, 
death ! Yes, the doom has fallen, and Death reigns 
over the sea and its shores where the Lord of life 
came and offered himself to men, and was despised 
and rejected. Thistles six feet high, and as thick as 
barley in the field, cover and hide the ruins of Caper- 
naum ; and as for Bethsaida, there is no trace even 
of any ruin. Indeed, the same is true of Capernaum, 
if Kahn Minyeh be the true site. 

Poor patches of wheat dot the slopes which once 
waved with a universal harvest — and even Gennesa- 
ret, that fed its thousands, is little more than a mass 
of rankest bramble. It has been, indeed, more 
tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, even in the judgments 
of time ; for smitten as they are, they still exist. 

Our object in visiting Tell Hum was not only to 
get a good stand-point from which to survey the 
lake and its shores, but to get a sight of the locality 
and ruins as well. The rim of the lake here is com- 
posed of round stones, some the size of a man's 



434 SEA OF GALILEE. 

head, some larger, some smaller, worn smooth by the 
waves, but evidently of volcanic origin. A very few 
steps brought us up to the edge of a level plot of 
ground of perhaps two or three hundred acres, with 
a rather gentle ascent of the ground around it on all 
sides except the front. This was covered with a 
mass of weeds and shrubs in which the thistle pre- 
vailed. The growth was exceedingly rank. A few 
tourists who had preceded us had broken a narrow 
path to the ruins. Some archaeologists assign a por- 
tion of these ruins to the beginning of the Christian 
era. The most massive are supposed to be the 
remains of a synagogue, and, if this was CapernauiHy 
it may have been the work of that pious centurion 
of whom they said, " He loveth our nation, and hath 
built us a synagogue." They are very massive, and 
in a good style of art, but I cannot undertake any 
description of them. 

There are other remains supposed to be thpse of 
a basilica, built on the traditional site of Simon 
Peter's house, in the sixth century. These I did not 
examine particularly. 

The ruins of a massive public edifice raise a strong 
presumption in favor of this as the site of the princi- 
pal city on this part of the lake, and especially as 
there are no such remains at any other place. It 
would be a most singular thing that the only build- 
ing of such size and material as to resist the ravages 
of time should be found in a village, and none such 
in the only city of the neighborhood. But whether 
this ought to outweigh the considerations which 
favor Kahn Minyeh as the place where Capernaum 
stood, or not, I leave others to determine. 



SEA OF GALILEE. 435 

Tiberias, built by Herod, and named for the 
T^mperor of Rome, was never, so far as we know, 
visited by our Lord. It was some eight miles south 
of Capernaum, on the west side of the lake, and was 
the largest city in all that region. Having been 
built on a grave-yard, the Jews refused to settle in it, 
and so the King had to get strangers to occupy it. 
It was essentially a heathen city, and noted for its 
wickedness. I remember only one passage of Scrip- 
ture that speaks of it, and that in an incidental way. 
The site of the old city was nearer to the Baths than 
that of the present town. There are some consider- 
able ruins there, but I had no time to examine them, 
though I took a moonlight walk to them. 

It is probable that our Lord v/as never in the 
streets of this city, and that ther:^fore it never had 
the opportunity of rejecting him in any formal way. 
Does this account for the fact that it still exists? 
Who can tell? Yet even it barely exists. The 
glory of it is all gone. 

It is one of the very strange facts of history that 
the place so abhorred by the Jews at first should 
have become a sacred place with them at a later day. 
Yet so it was. 

There are two places, one on the lake — Tiberias — 
and one perched high upon the mountains above it 
to the north-west, and overlooking it — Safed — which 
are held by many Jews now, and have been for many 
ages past, in as high regard, or nearly so, as Jerusa- 
lem itself. How it came about that the Rabbins 
connected the Sea of Galilee with the coming of 
Messiah I know not, but the fact is certain. Whether 
this beUef led to the establishment of the great 



43^ SEA OF GALILEE. 

university of that people in Tiberias in the early part 
of the Christian era, or whether its location here rose 
out of that fact, I know not ; but for three centuries 
that university was the great center of interest and 
sacred learning among the Jews scattered over the 
whole earth. Here the great Maimonides was buried. 
Here the most distinguished Rabbins were trained, 
and here they taught the Law and the Targum. 
Here also was "the seat of the Patriarch, who exer- 
cised an almost papal sway over the wide extent to 
which his exiled countrymen had been scattered." 

It became a received tradition among them that 
Messiah would rise out of the Sea of Galilee, land at 
Tiberias, and fix the seat of his kingdom at Safed. 
Thus this sheet of water became as dear and sacred 
to them as to the Christians, and to this day many 
of them make their home in Tiberias, and in Safed, 
looking for the day when the Deliverer shall come. 
They cherish the words of the Rabbins, " I have cre- 
ated seven seas, saith the Lord, but out of them all 
I have chosen none but the Sea of Gennesaret." 

After a brief examination of the ruins of Tell 
Hum, we returned to the boat, for we had no time to 
spare. At the water's edge we found a few olean- 
ders, but they were not so large as I expected to 
see. Our boatmen toiled at the oars with hearty 
good-will. We passed near the mill which they called 
Bethsaida, and saw our luggage-train coming up 
through the plain of Gennesaret. Landing a few 
rods below Kahn Minyeh, our good-natured fisher- 
men accompanied us out a quarter of a mile to the 
place where our horses were already awaiting us. 
Coming to a brook too wide to step over, one of 



SEA OF GALILEE. 43/ 

them stepped into the water, and putting his . strong 
arm around me Hfted me to the other side as Hghtly 
as if I had been a child. We passed through a 
jungle, and then came to a patch of the rankest 
wheat I ever saw, though it had evidently been 
planted in the most slovenly way. What land this 
plain of Gennesaret is ! Our horses were now in 
sight, but our friendly boatmen did not leave us. 
They held our stirrups when we mounted, and shook 
hands with us with an unmistakable cordiality. It 
was the only instance of any attention being paid us 
in a special way by the natives, in all Palestine, that 
did not seem to contemplate backsheesh. For one, I 
felt gratified that this exceptional instance should 
appear in the case of fishermen, on the Lake of 
Galilee. 

Passing northward, we ascended out of the plain, 
and soon reached the summit of the mountain, 
where we had the lake in full view again. We 
paused upon our horses to look upon it for the last 
time. Perhaps it is natural, if not excusable, in 
writing about these hallowed places, after having 
seen them, to exaggerate the emotions which were 
felt at the moment. But of that one sin I have not 
been guilt)^. Any statements of the sort that I have 
made have been well considered, and certainly this 
last sight of the waters so often traversed by the 
Master, and around which so great a portion of his 
teaching and his mighty works were done, I did 
experience the deepest sensibility. Standing upon 
the shore, just down there, with the lake spread out 
before Him, and the harvest-covered slopes in the 
background. He had called Simon, and Andrew, his 



43^ SEA OF GALILEE. 

brother, from among just such fishermen as we had 
been with this morning, to be fishers of men. He 
had cast his commanding eye on the sons of Zeb- 
edee, in the boat with their father, mending their 
net, saying, " Follow me," and they " left their 
father and the ship and followed Him." There in 
Capernaum sat Matthew "at the receipt of custom," 
when the charm of the Divine voice withdrew him 
from his money-bags, and he, too, forsook all, and 
making a feast at which the friends he was leaving 
and the Master he was going with should meet, 
thenceforth followed Him whithersoever he went. 
Out there, in such a boat as we had been in. He was 
asleep on a pillow in the hinder part of the ship — 
much in the same position as we had seen one of the 
boatmen asleep to-day — when a fierce storm of wind 
swept down from the mountains, and the disciples, 
affrighted, called Him, and he arose to rebuke the 
wind and the sea. There, in the dead of night, he 
had come to His disciples in the boat, walking on 
the tempestuous waters. Overlooking it, probably 
on the heights of Hattin, He had delivered the Ser- 
mon of sermons. In sight of its waters, whether on 
Tabor or Hermon, He had been transfigured. There 
His gifts of healing were showered among the peo- 
ple with a divine beneficence. All its hills and all 
its ripples had been made radiant by His presence. 
Even after He suffered he had met his heart- 
broken disciples there, after their night of fruitless 
toil, feeding them, with human tenderness, with fish 
broiled upon a " fire of coals," and with divine com- 
passion restoring the apostate Peter. 

For a few hours my eyes had feasted themselves 



WONDERS OF THE JORDAN. 439 

Upon its scenery, lovely — so I think — in itself; unut- 
terably so in its history. I had bathed in its waters, 
had gathered pebbles upon its beach, slept upon its 
shore, and sailed upon its surface. At Jerusalem I 
had touched upon his sacrificial death, here I had 
communed with his all-gracious life. 

As I sat there on horseback, gazing upon it for 
the last time, the whole scene entered too deeply 
into my heart to be forgotten. I am sure it will 
never fade. I turned my horse's head and left it — 
or rather, in a deeper sense, I carried it away, a rich 
possession of the soul forever. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE WONDERS OF THE JORDAN. 

/*7^^FTER leaving the Lake of Galilee we pro- 
(4\/ ceeded northward some miles over a rocky, 
mountainous road, lying parallel with the river, 
but three or four miles to the west, when suddenly 
before us, and to our right, a large valley opened, 
having a lake in the midst. Of course it was Lake 
Merom and the upper Jordan valley. I was quite 
unprepared to find this valley so large. The bot- 
tom-land must be six or eight miles wide, and three 



440 WONDERS OF THE JORDAN. 

times as long, or more. It was as green as the val- 
ley of the Nile, with the barren mountains of Galilee 
on the west, and of the Hauron on the east, the foot- 
hills of Hermon on the north, and the snow-clad 
summit of the great mountain farther back, a little to 
the east of north. 

The valley was dotted with villages of the pastoral 
Bedouins. The Bedouin tents are usually made of a 
coarse fabric of woven goat's hair, and are as black 
as the "tents of Kedar." But those we saw here are 
made of a sort of reed matting. A few were covered 
with the black goat's-hair cloth. But generally the 
covering and all was made of matting. Their wealth 
consists almost exclusively of cattle, with a few buf- 
falo — the same ugly creature that we saw in .such 
numbers in China, India and Egypt, but have seen 
nowhere in Palestine or Syria, except in this upper 
valley of the Jordan. The Bedouins elsewhere are 
famous horse-breeders, but here they seem to raise 
cattle exclusively. I suppose they find a market for 
them in Damascus, which is only three or four days 
distant. I presume they subsist to a great extent 
upon the flesh and milk of their herds. The pas- 
turage of this alluvial region — for this valley is all 
alluvium — is exuberant. We saw thousands upon 
thousands of cattle feeding upon it, but nowhere did 
it seem to be fed down. 

Much of the valley is overflowed in the winter, 
and a good deal of it is marshy always. The banks 
of the river and the shores of the lake are very low. 
Toward the border of the valley the land is higher, 
and much of it is in cultivation. The crops gener- 
ally are very fine. The wheat, just now in full head. 



WONDERS OF THE JORDAN. 44I 

promises a generous harvest. There are a good 
many plowmen now a-field, breaking up the soil to 
plant dhura, a coarse sort of grain that is used for 
feeding stock, and often also for bread. But what a 
feeble battle with these rank weeds the little shovel- 
plows do make, drawn by a single yoke of oxen, and 
they often very small. O, for a plow worthy of the 
name, and a California team to draw it ! What har- 
vests might then be gathered ! 

At. about three o'clock, p. m., we camped in the 
edge of the valley, on the bank of a beautiful stream, 
within two hundred yards of the point where it issues 
from the foot of the mountain. A small part of its 
waters run a little mill above our camp. I stepped 
from stone to stone across a part of the stream, 
which spreads over a wide bed of pebbles, and went 
in to inspect the work of the mill. It is a small, 
square, stone structure. Two sets of small stones 
were running, surrounded by a rising platform which 
occupies one side of the house. The top of the 
lower stone stood a little above the level of the plat- 
form. The upper stone was not surrounded by any 
casing. It was grinding dhura, the meal coming out 
upon the platform all round the stones. As it accu- 

•mulated it was drawn by hand into a box-like recep- 
tacle, which was sunk into the platform. In one 
of these boxes, which had been filled, a man was 
standing in the meal with his bare feet, scooping 
it out and putting it in a sack. The miller gets 

. about three cents a bushel, as nearly as I could 
understand it, for grinding, and pays a tax of five 
Napoleons (twenty dollars) a year for the privilege. 
When I left, the miller accompanied me to the edge 



442 WONDERS OF THE JORDAN. 

of the stream, having noticed that I had stepped 
from stone to stone rather totteringly, and offered 
me a ride on his back, which I accepted. Having 
been comfortably landed, I gave him three coppers, 
which, all taken together, were not quite of the 
value of one cent of our money. He accepted it 
with gratitude, and we parted. Think of the owner 
of a water-mill, glad to carry a man across the creek, 
not as an act of hospitality, but for the fee, and that 
one cent ! Poor fellow, he was in rags, and I doubt 
not that after his tax is paid, and repairs of his mill 
provided for, there remains but little for him and his 
household. It grinds amazingly slow; yet it is a 
great improvement over woman-power, which is in 
very general use from China to Syria. 

Nothing would do my two friends but they must 
bathe in Lake Merom, which was about two miles 
distant. I had little faith in the enterprise, for I felt 
sure, by the look of things, that the lake shore was a 
swamp. Being somewhat fatigued by the day's ride 
I at first declined to accompany them, but, upon re- 
flection, concluded to do so, lest they might require 
some one to pull them out of the mud. Before we 
were within a quarter of a mile of the shore Mr. 
Hendrix's horse, which was in advance, began to 
sink so deep into the wet soil that Mr. Samson and 
I paused. But H., intrepid and eager for the bath, 
urged his horse on — deeper, deeper, deeper. He 
had gone beyond the bounds of prudence, and soon 
discovered the fact. There was a fine expression of 
solicitude in his eye as he turned and gazed toward 
terra fir ma. The solicitude must have gone down to 
his heels, for they plied the sides of his floundering 



WONDERS OF THE JORDAN. 445 

steed very vigorously. I did really fear for a mo- 
ment that the noble brute would not be able to get 
back. What ludicrous associations of ideas will 
sometimes obtrude themselves upon a man even in 
a critical moment! I thought of the Florida con- 
stable's indorsement on the writ: *'Ad in swampum 
et non comatibitsr Did I smile ? I hope that ques- 
tion will not be pressed. 

We were lulled to sleep that night by the musical 
monotone of the flowing confluent of the Jordan, on 
the very bank of which our tent had been pitched. 

The next morning for some hours our road lay 
along the western edge of the valley, just along by 
the foot of the mountains. The valley to our right 
was alive with Bedouin villages and cattle. Farther 
on our road passed through two or three of these 
villages. As this is the road taken by tourists to 
Damascus, the children have picked up an English 
salutation. The little bare-footed and bare-headed 
crowds, boys and girls, shouted to us as we passed, 
"Good morning." The demand for backsheesh, how- 
ever, was less clamorous than I expected to hear. 
Many of the men and women greeted us pleasantly. 
They never failed to scold the dogs back when they 
rushed out at us, as they did constantly, and in a 
very ferocious manner. Two of our party rode up 
to one of the tents, to look inside and inspect the 
furniture and general arrangement, when a woman, 
with eager hospitality, hastened to offer them a drink 
of butter-milk. One of them who drank of it pro- 
nounced it very delicious. 

We soon reached the head of the main valley, and, 
turning to the east, crossed some rocky points, and 



444 WONDERS OF THE JORDAN. 

in an hour or two found ourselves upon the western 
branch of these upper streams, which unite a few 
miles below, and form the Jordan. We heard the 
flow of its waters before we saw them, the stream 
being fringed by a line of heavy foliage. Here the 
road turned to the left again, and we ascended the 
stream through a rocky gorge a mile or two, and 
then crossed it on a stone bridge. Here our drago- 
man stopped to converse with a man we met, and 
we passed on, ascending a steep hill over as ugly a 
piece of naked, rugged rock as it was ever my for- 
tune to encounter. Soon the dragoman came up in 
great haste, and much excited. He had just been 
informed that two days before the Bedouins had 
attacked and robbed a party at this very place. 

It was our purpose to make a detour from the road 
here, in order to see the fountain in which this stream 
rises. But the dragoman insisted that v/e should all 
remain together, and keep close to the luggage-train. 
In these war-times the Bedouins were becoming bold, 
and committing many depredations. We thought 
it prudent to follow his advice, and so missed seeing 
this one of the "sources of the Jordan" — much to 
our regret. 

As we ascended the hill, Azeez was in front. 
Azeez was in charge of our lunch, and always 
accompanied us. He was an imperturbable man, 
though with an under-current of humor. Reaching 
the summit, he shouted, "Bedouins! Bedouins!" 
and flourished his big pistol. Upon such an alarm 
our dragoman, who had fallen to the rear, felt duty- 
bound to gallop up. Alas for chivalry ! I could 
not but contrast his bearing at this moment with that 



WONDERS OF THE JORDAN. 445 

.we had witnessed in the sham fight at the Dead Sea. 
Then he was boiling over with courage, sat erect, 
and in defiant attitude, flourished his pistols, and 
dashed at the foe with furious speed. Now the 
feeble effort to look brave was really ludicrous. 
His very horse galloped slowly and hesitatingly, as if 
he were just ready to turn upon his heels, while he 
himself sat in the saddle with a drooped and pitiful 
aspect, which completely dispelled the illusion of the 
sham battle. I could never afterward imagine that 
he had the look of Mars. In fact he came quite 
down, all in a moment, to the level of ordinary mor- 
tals. All this upon a false alarm ; if the Bedouins 
had actually appeared, to what diminutiveness he 
might have shriveled I cannot guess. 

We were now in the foot-hills of Mount Hermon, 
but they were only hills, and for the most part I 
might say undulations. Before us were the middle 
and eastern branches of the Jordan. The sources of 
the Jordan are said to be in Mount Hermon, and so 
they are ; but that statement, if left unexplained, will 
give the reader a false impression. The three prin- 
cipal streams which come together above Lake 
Merom, and form the Jordan, come out of the ground 
near the foot of the mountain, at their full size. 
They do not grow by the confluence of rills upon 
the surface. On the contrary, the water of the 
mountains sinks through fissures in the rocks, is col- 
lected into considerable bodies under-ground, and, 
then flowing through clefts of the rocks, or through 
beds of gravel, comes to the surface at the foot of 
the mountain. 

These fountains are not so high up in the moun- 



44^ WONDERS OF THE JORDAN. 

tain as I had imagined. The western one is fairly 
up in the foot-hills, but the two others com 3 out, the 
middle one where the valley begins to rise into rather 
bold undulations, and the eastern just at the foot of 
the first cliffs of the Anti-Lebanon range, which are 
here properly the cliffs of Mount Hermon. True, 
they are about 1,200 feet above Lake Merom, but 
the approach to them is over ground that rises so 
gradually as to belong rather to the plain than the 
mountain. As we looked down upon it from the 
first summits, the places where they rise have the 
appearance of being in the upper edge of the valley 
of Merom. 

Our road passed just to the north of the head or 
fountain of the second or middle branch, and within 
a few yards of it. We rode to the very spot. The 
immediate point of its egress from the ground was 
so covered with shrubbery that it was concealed, but 
we saw the water as it emerged from the mass of 
foliage and flowed away. 

Near by was the site of the old city of Dan. It 
stood, not as I had it pictured in my mind, up in the 
mountains, but on rather a slight elevation in the 
upper reaches of the great plain. There is but little 
there now. The name of the modern village near 
by I do not remember. The situation is rather com- 
manding, and the landscape magnificent, and in 
many parts beautiful. The whole extent of the val- 
ley of Lake Merom is in view on the south, the spurs 
of Mount Lebanon rise on the west, while the low 
ridge which divides Palestine from Ccele-Syria 
stretches along on the north, and Hermon — Jebel 
Es Sheikh, the Prince of Mountains, as the natives 



WONDERS OF THE JORDAN. 44/ 

proudly name him — with masses of snow scattered 
about upon his crest, towers up to the north-east. 
A goodly place those heroic Danites won for them- 
selves at the very head of the river. 

Our course lay now about due north-east, crossing 
a ridge of unusual contour for this country. It is a 
swell, lying north and south, and is covered with a 
scrubby growth of trees. I say covered, but to an 
American it would not seem so close set as that 
word implies. Still it is the nearest approach to it 
to be found anywhere in this country. 

Having crossed this ridge we came upon the east- 
ern branch of the Jordan, and followed it a short 
way up to the base of the precipitous spurs of Leba- 
non, to the town of Banias — the Cesarea Philippi of 
the New Testament. The village lies at the base of 
the mountain. Springs break out on all sides, and 
flow off into the valley in copious rivulets. Follow- 
ing the mountain eastward about a quarter of a mile, 
you come to a sheer precipice of rock, at the base of 
which there is a strip of level ground a few yards 
wide, from which an abrupt descent takes you down 
to the point where this branch of the Jordan comes 
into the daylight. 

It does not burst out of a fissure in the rock all 
in one body, but flows copiously out of a bed of 
coarse pebbles. The line along which it flows out, 
is perhaps fifty yards long, the first flow being over a 
wide space and very shallow. It is soon compressed 
into a narrower channel, and rushes away headlong 
over a rapidly descending bed. 

The name of the west branch, the head of which 
we did not see, is Derdora — that of the middle, 



448 WONDERS OF THE JORDAN. 

Little Jordan, and of the east, Banias. The prin- 
cipal one is the Little Jordan, and the second in 
magnitude is the Banias. But the Derdora comes 
down from a higher point in the mountains than the 
two larger streams, which originate, as I have said, 
one of them quite in the open plains at the city of 
Dan, and the other at the foot of the mountain at 
Banias — that is, Cesarea Philippi. 

We have no knowledge of our Lord's having 
ever visited the city of Cesarea Philippi. Once he 
was in '* the coasts," that is, in the neighborhood of 
it — and this was very near the end of his life. Here 
Peter made, for himself and the twelve, the formal 
confession, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the 
living God," receiving the answer, " Thou art Peter, 
and on this rock will I build my Church, and the 
gates of hell shall not prevail against it." This was 
said, no doubt, amid the spurs and rocks of Her- 
mon. Only six days later he was transfigured in a 
"high mountain," /^r/z(^/^ one of the mountains of 
this very cluster. At any rate, immediately after 
that great event, he made his last journey to Jerusa- 
lem to be offered up — going down on the east side 
of the river, which he recrossed only a few miles 
above the Dead Sea, and taking Jericho in the way 
where he healed the blind man, and brought salva- 
tion to the house of Zaccheus. So that his visit to 
this extreme northern part of Galilee was just on the 
eve of his death, as was also the great confession of 
the apostles. The question occurred to me: "Was 
there any special meaning in this, that the formal 
and solemn proclamation of the Messiahship ot Jesus 
was made at the very extremity of the Holy Land, 



WONDERS OF THE JORDAN. 449 

and on the borders of the Gentile world ? Why- 
should he wander up here into this region, on the 
great highway of the nations, for this solemn trans- 
action ? Was it the yearning of his heart toward 
the world ? Did he stand by the partition wall at 
that supreme moment that his word might break it 
down? Was he showing his disciples already the 
way to Antioch — to Damascus — to the world ? " 

Along the very road by which our Lord "came 
into the coasts of Cesarea Philippi," Saul of Tarsus 
must have gone on his way towards Damascus, with 
" letters from the chief priests," on the occasion of 
that momentous journey, when, having come near to 
the end of it, a glory which exceeded that of the 
transfiguration smote him blind, that his eyes might 
be opened to behold the '* true light which lighteth 
every man that cometh into the world," and felled 
him to the earth that he might rise to the dignity of 
the sons of God. 

Our tent at Cesarea Philippi stood at the base of 
the mountain, on which are the ruins of an old castle. 
There is a circuitous route by which they may be 
reached on horseback; but as our guide-book in- 
formed us that we could make the ascent in an hour 
on foot, H. and I concluded to let our horses rest, 
and so we started out with a guide on foot, accom- 
panied by Mr. Samson on a little donkey, he having 
been lamed by a kick from a horse some days before. 
We wound our way round and round, at a painful 
angle upward all the while, for a full hour and a half, 
when, to our dismay, coming suddenly round a point, 
the peak on which the castle stands came in sight, 

15 



450 WONDERS OF THE JORDAN. 

and we saw it rising like another mountain still above 
us. But perseverance, etc. 

An inscription points to the thirteenth century 
as the date of some of the work done here. It was 
probably repaired or enlarged at that time, but there 
can be little doubt that the foundations were laid in 
the old Roman times. Portions of the entire wall 
are standing, and in some places they ere still very 
high. The rocks of which it w^as built are very m.as- 
sive ; many of them would weigh several tons each. 
Perhaps they were obtained in flattening the summit 
of the mountain for the building. It seems almost 
impossible that they should have been brought up 
this mountain ; but the cyclopean labors of the an- 
cients are so numerous and so stupendous that one 
comes to be prepared, after a while, to believe almost 
anything in this line. 

This was a fortification of immense strength, both 
on account of the difficulty of approach, and the 
impregnable character of the walls. An amount of 
stone has fallen from them sufficient to cumber the 
whole brow of the mountain, and yet in some places 
they are still twenty-five or thirty feet high. Not 
only the thickness of the wall, but the great size of 
the individual stones, rendered it exceedingly strong. 
It covers the whole area of 'the summit, which was 
probably cut down and flattened for it — and from 
the wall the angle of descent is so sharp that no 
engines could have been planted within reach of it , 
so that it was unassailable by battering-ran or cata- 
pult. Immense reservoirs cf water are standing in 
it, so that it seems to have been well supplied in that 



WONDERS OF THE JORDAN. 45 I 

respect. Nothing but starvation could have over- 
come a garrison occupying it. 

We clambered to the top of a tower near the 
south-west corner, which raises its shattered head 
above the rest of the ruins, where we sat and gazed 
out for the last time upon Lake Merom and its beau- 
tiful valley, framed by mountains on all sides. Frora 
this elevation we saw quite a number of small lakes 
in the valley, above Lake Merom. The level sun 
was almost ready to disappear beyond the ridges of 
the Lebanon, which were already casting their 
shadow over half the valley. The effect of the 
shading was very fine. It was one of those scenes 
in which nature seems to take on an aspect of beauty 
beyond its wont — when the inner secrets of things 
come out upon the surface, and God affixes his sign- 
manual and seal upon his works. The moment, too, 
was auspicious. We three who sat together on that 
shattered throne of the god of war had been for a 
month following the footprints of the Prince of Peace, 
and were now looking for the last time upon the 
regions made memorable by his presence while he 
was in the flesh. No wonder if we were in a subjec- 
tive condition which made us in a higher degree 
recipient of divine meanings in nature. 

My last look upon Jerusalem from Scopus, upon 
the Lake of Galilee from the mountains to the north- 
ward of it, and upon the upper valley and the sources 
of the Jordan from the ruined castle of Banias, con- 
stitute a series of experiences for which I can never 
cease to praise God. 

But the visitor to the Holy Land must not come 
expecting to find its beauty such as will answer to 



452 WONDERS OF THE JORDAN. 

his expectations or sentiments. Much of the coun- 
try is a mere stretch of barren, rocky hills. There 
are not wanting many visitors who see little or no 
beauty anywhere. To my eye there are many 
beautiful landscapes ; yet many parts of America 
afford far richer scenery. We see Palestine in the 
light of a religious feeling before we visit it, and the 
divine radiance constitutes a medium through which 
all appears in an unreal coloring. The effect of an 
actual visit is diverse in different individuals. In 
some the prepossession of religious sentiment is 
so strong, and occupies the imagination so com- 
pletely, as to project itself upon all they see — so that 
to them the very desert becomes a paradise of 
beauty, every mountain glows in the light of another 
transfiguration, the poorest and most naked land- 
scape is transformed, and where there is a real 
beauty — as there often is — it appears a very para- 
dise, a new Jerusalem coming down from God out of 
heaven. In others, less under the dominion of their 
prepossessions, there is a sudden disenchantment. 
Jerusalem — they have seen a hundred cities more 
beautiful, and with more beautiful surroundings. 
Even the Mount of Olives suffers in comparison with 
the hills they rambled over in childhood. The most 
beautiful valleys here are yet not so lovely as those 
they have seen in Virginia or Kentucky. The Sea 
of Galilee itself disappoints them. In the revulsion 
of feeling which follows they are unable to perceive 
the beauties that would otherwise be apparent. 

God did not select this region as the home of his 
chosen people on account of its beauty. The seats 
of the tabernacle and of the temple were not chosen 



WONDERS OF THE JORDAN. 453 

upon any grounds of natural superiority. The local 
background of divine manifestations was matter of 
no consequence. Perhaps it were better that it 
should not be in any high degree attractive. The 
glory of the Shekinah must be all its own. Revela- 
tion must run no risk of being overlooked and dis- 
regarded through the too great interest of its natural 
setting, lest the glory of the Creator should be trans- 
ferred to the creature ; nor yet must it be exposed to 
the danger of a sensuous degeneration through a too 
vital connection with scenes of physical en/:hant- 
ment. 

The true interest of all this country is in its his- 
tory, though a man in sympathy with nature will see 
much in the aspects of both the mountains and val- 
leys to admire. Those who fail to do so are persons 
of local tastes, who can appreciate only a given style, 
and are quite incapable of a broader interest, either 
in art or nature, than that which attaches to objects 
conforming to their type. The man of deep insight 
and true sympathy — the genuine lover of nature — 
who is open to all that comes to him in its multiform 
disclosures, will find a real pleasure here, even aside 
from the main purpose of his visit. But it is, after 
all, because Jerusalem was the city of holy solemni- 
ties, and the place where Jesus suffered ; because the 
tabernacle was in Shiloh, and Samuel judged Israel 
there ; because our Lord sailed upon the waters of 
the Lake of Galilee, and called his chief disciples 
from among its fishermen ; and because that in the 
coasts of Cesarea Philippi he was formally confessed 
to be the Son of the living God, that we take any 



454 DAMASCUS AND THE BARADA. 

special and deep interest in these places, and come 
from the ends of the earth to see them. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

DAMASCUS AND THE BARADA. 

-__ EAVING Banias for Damascus, the road passes 
I over the southern spurs of Mount Hermon. 
"'\, Volcanic rock abounds. In fact, the road at 
one point touches the crater of an extinct volcano. 
The mountain-sides show the same features as those 
near the Dead Sea — the same violent contortions of 
strata with the same kind of stone. I think there 
can be no doubt that the whole of the Jordan valley, 
including the Dead Sea at one end and the Lebanon 
ranges at the other, was once disturbed by volcanic 
agencies so violently as to have received its confor- 
mation from them. Whether the unexampled de- 
pression of this wonderful valley is due to this cause 
or not, I am sure I cannot tell. 

A few hours of steady traveling puts you on the 



DAMASCUS AND THE BARADA. 455 

eastern side of these ridges, and into the border of 
the great plain stretching eastward toward the Eu- 
phrates. South and east some isolated ridges appear, 
but they are of limited extent and of no great eleva- 
tion. Cultivation in this plain depends wholly on 
irrigation. In this edge of it many streams coming 
down out of the mountains are bordered by fields in 
the valleys which they make ; but in every part where 
irrigation is imprac 'cable it has the character of a 
desert. 

Before coming into the plain we saw a good many 
small valleys in the mountains which were cultivated, 
and a good many herds of cattle which find sufficient 
pasturage in the mountains. The Druses live in 
these and in the Lebanon mountains. We were 
interested in the first villages of that singular people 
which we saw. One morning we passed quite a 
large one on a hill-side. The houses were not so 
closely crowded together as is usually the case in the 
villages of this country. At a distance the ranges of 
houses rising on the mountain-side, one above 
another, show very prettily. As we came near the 
village a number of boys came running out to the 
road with fossil specimens for sale. 

The Druses originated, as nearly as I can gather, 
soon after the incursion of Islamism into this region. 
These Arabs of the mountains were but partially 
converted to that faith ; and in the uproar and tumult 
of ideas then afloat several sects were formed whose 
beliefs were grounded upon the teachings of Moham- 
med in part, but modified by their own crude ideas 
and semi-barbarous customs. Of these sects the 
Druses were the most important, perhaps — at least, 



45^ DAMASCUS AND THE BARADA. 

they have become the most widely known, having- 
been brought into notice by the massacre of i860. 

They have secret rites of initiation, and their 
rehgious behefs are scrupulously concealed. Their 
organization is not purely religious, but political as 
well. Their chiefs, or sheiks, are implicitly obeyed,, 
and have the power of life and death. 

The Druses, it is said, are hospitable to the last 
degree toward those who are admitted to their hos- 
pitality. Once the stranger is in the house of the 
sheik, and has broken bread there, he is not only 
secure in his person, but may depend upon being 
treated with the highest degree of hospitable regard. 
But to offset this virtue they have many vices. 
They are deceitful to the last degree. Among 
Christians they profess to be Christians, and among 
Mussulmans they profess to be Mussulmans. 

Between them and their neighbors, the Maronite 
Christians, there has been bitter enmity for ages. 
The fault is not wholly with the Druses, for it is not 
to be supposed that those Maronites are very exem- 
plary Christians. Intense and bigoted they are in 
their faith, but as to morals they are little better 
than the Druses themselves. No doubt it is in. the 
hearts of both parties to exterminate each other. 

After the treaty of Paris of 1 856 the conviction 
became prevalent here that the Christian Powers 
would abstain from any interference in the internal 
affairs of the Turkish Government. The Druses 
knew the hatred of the Turks toward the Christians, 
and, in the absence of European interference, they 
knew that the Turkish Government would do nothing 
to protect them, nor punish any crime that might be 



DAMASCUS AND THE BARADA. 45/ 

•committed against them. The moment to gratify 
the enmity of ages had come. Indeed, there is no 
doubt that the Druses and Turks had an understand- 
ing with each other. 

Suddenly the massacre broke out in Damascus, 
and spread among the villages in the mountains. It 
lasted for several days, and many thousands of Chris- 
tians perished, both in the city and in the villages. 
In one respect the Druses were right in their expec- 
tations — the Turkish authorities showed no disposi- 
tion to protect the Christians, nor to punish their 
murderers. But they had miscalculated in another 
particular. They did not know the temper of the 
European Governments. The news of the atrocities 
aroused the civilized world, and the Sultan soon 
learned that unless he took measures to punish the 
guilty parties, and showed himself in earnest about 
it, the armies of Europe would avenge the blood of 
the Damascus martyrs. Not only were the Druse 
Sheiks brought to punishment, but some French 
regiments penetrated Syria, and many of the fright- 
ened Druses fled to the Hauran, and have never 
returned. 

It is said that those who remained here have been 
declining in numbers and prosperity ever since, and 
that even in the Hauran a blight seems to have 
fallen upon them, as if they had filled the measure of 
their iniquity, and were now perishing. 

After emerging upon the plain we came upon a 
flush mountain-stream, not over two feet deep, on 
the bank of which we stopped for lunch. Its present 
name I do not remember, but in Naaman's time it 
was called the Pharpar. It does not flow through 



458 DAMASCUS AND THE BARADA. 

the city of Damascus, but several miles south of it, 
though one or two of its canals connect, I believe, 
with the system of canals from the Barada, or Abana, 
by which the city and its outlying gardens are irri- 
gated. 

On a confluent of the same stream we pitched our 
tent for the night. As we approached the camp our 
eyes were astonished by the fringe of trees — not 
shrubs — that lined the bank of the stream at this 
point. That which was most abundant was the 
slender and graceful tree which we call Lombardy 
poplar in America, and which is indigenous in 
Syria. These groves of tall, slender trees constitute 
a most striking feature in the landscape wherever 
they occur. The heavy green foliage contrasts most 
vividly with the naked desert. They are found no- 
where except along the water-courses. 

It had been our purpose and expectation to reach 
Damascus on Saturday, but we found it impos- 
sible to do so without overworking the mules 
that packed our luggage. Our camp for Saturday 
night was in a miserable village several hours from 
the city. Should we spend the Lord's day there in 
perfectly objectless repose ? or should we ride to Da- 
mascus, and endeavor to join with the missionaries 
in the public worship of God ? We determined upon 
the latter course. But we had been misled as to the 
time required for the ride, and had the mortification 
to spend the entire morning in the saddle, and to 
find ourselves, on arriving, too late for any English 
service. It was a raw, uncomfortable day, and we 
were glad to find in our tent the opportunity of read- 
ing the word of God, and worshiping in a quiet way. 



DAMASCUS AND THE BARADA. 459 

As we approached the city that most remarkable 
oasis in which it stands came into full view. It is 
about eighteen miles square, and I presume there is 
no greener spot on the face of the earth. Trees and 
gardens cover it with a vendure that is indescribable. 
We saw it in the early spring, when it was at its 
freshest and best. 

The city stands at the foot of the Anti-Lebanon 
mountains, just where the river Barada — the Abana 
of the Scriptures — enters the plain. This is a small 
stream, but rushing down from the mountain as it 
does, with great rapidity, it delivers a large amount 
of water. So soon as it emerges from the mountain 
it is tapped by canals, which distribute the water in 
every direction through the city, and through the 
plain around and below the city, to the lagoon, 
eighteen miles east, in which it is lost. 

No city could be better supplied with water. The 
canals, sometimes open, sometimes running under 
archways beneath streets and houses, traverse it in 
every part. In walking through the city one is often 
taken by surprise, coming upon a spot where the 
water rushes from under a wall ; and at every turn 
you will find fountains in the bazaar, in the market, 
and in niches in the walls of the houses. One set of 
canals furnishes pure water for use, while another 
serves for drainage. 

All the fields and gardens in this oasis are pro- 
tected by concrete fences, such as I have seen in 
south-western Texas, and made in the same way. 
The gravel and earth are thrown together into a 
frame on the spot where the wall is to be made, and 
beaten down solid with a maul. Upon every few 



460 DAMASCUS AND THE BARADA. 

spadefuls being thrown in it is beaten down ; thus 
it becomes extremely hard. The frame is then 
removed, leaving the wall naked. These fences, or 
more properly walls, are two feet, or more, in thick- 
ness, and five or six feet high, so that in many cases 
the traveler on horseback can hardly see the ground 
inside. They mar the general beauty of the place 
greatly, being very clumsy, and obstructing the view 
so largely. 

The population of Damascus is considerably over 
100,000, but its buildings and bazaars are not what 
one expects. There is very little good architecture 
here. The houses are low, and nearly all rather 
shabby. The bazaar contrasts strongly with that of 
Cairo. The one very celebrated mosque is in a poor 
style of art. 

The "street that is called Straight" is sometimes 
ridiculed by superficial tourists. It is not, in fact, 
perfectly straight, but it is the only street in the city 
which holds a persistently straight course through 
from one side to the other — a general course which 
is very direct, and which the short offsets here and 
there do not interfere with. It is eminently the 
straight street of Damascus. In any city having such 
a system of streets — or, rather, such a no system — 
with one thoroughfare from side to side, bent a little 
here and there, but keeping a direct course through- 
out, this very name would be most naturally given 
to it. 

All the prophets and patriarchs are honored by the 
Mussulmans. You will find in Damascus the 
Mosque of the ''Prophet Solomon." In fact, you 
have to come to this country to learn that Abel and 



DAMASCUS AND THE BARADA. 46 1 

Seth, and almost every man whose name appears in 
the Old Testament, were prophets. I am told that 
the average Arab Mussulman thinks that Abraham, 
Moses, Christ, and Mohammed, all lived at the same 
time, all being inspired prophets, the greatest of 
whom was Mohammed. The dense ignorance, even 
of men who seem to be intelligent in many respects, 
in regard to religion, is beyond belief 

There is a Christian and a Jewish quarter of the 
city. The Christian population is much larger than I 
supposed, and some of the leading business men are 
of this faith. We had been told that it would be 
worth while to see the inside of one or two dwellings 
of wealthy Mohammedan merchants, and that there 
would be no objection on the part of the proprietors. 
Our guide, however, assured us that it was impracti- 
cable, but that we could get admission to the pri- 
vate residences of some Christians. Moreover, he 
assured us that the most elegant residences of the 
city were the property of Christians. But it must be 
understood that the number of really elegant houses 
is very limited. The one we visited did not impress 
us favorably on the outside, though we were informed 
it was the best in the city. Inside we found things 
wearing an aspect of Oriental magnificence that 
exceeded our expectation. We were very politely 
received by a woman of thirty-five or forty, who was, 
no doubt, the house-keeper. She had an air of good 
sense, and a propriety of deportment that impressed 
us very favorably. The master of the house was at 
Beyroot, with his family. We were shown seats 
in a very magnificent drawing-room, paved with 



462 DAMASCUS AND THE BARADA. 

marble elegantly laid in mosaic, and invited to 
take coffee, which, for want of time, we declined. 

The house was of two stories, and the upper apart- 
ments were not at all in keeping with the magnifi- 
cence of those below. The rooms were small, and 
the plain pine doors not even painted. What a con- 
trast between the part which was for use and that 
which was for show ! 

Our guide took us to the "house of Ananias," but 
we did not go in. The Christians, scarcely less igno- 
rant than the Mohammedans, seem to have no ques- 
tion that this modern dwelling is the very one in 
which the good Ananias lived. They will show you 
also the window — the very same window — from 
which St. Paul was let down in a basket. We saw, 
in fact, a number of windows from which a man 
might be very well lowered over the wall, and so 
make his escape from the city. There are many 
houses which have the city wall for their back wall, 
with bay windows projecting ov&r the wall of the 
city, that of the house rising a story above. Nothing 
would be more inevitable than that a man's friends 
would let him down from such a window, if he were 
in danger and desired to escape. 

We saw two — and only two — business houses of 
good size, both of which were wholesale establish- 
ments, and warehouses for grain and provisions. 
They were really spacious, having massive wails, 
and each being surmounted by a rotunda, having a 
gallery round it at the base. The wooden v/ork of 
the gallery had a look of age that was indeed impres- 
sive. Protected from the weather, and subjected to 
no friction, it still seems to be wearing out. It 



DAMASCUS AND THE BARADA. 463 

looked as if it might date from the period when Dar- 
win's ancestors were tadpoles. We noticed the same 
thing in several places. 

Among other places, our guide showed us the 
slave-market, where people come two days in the 
week to purchase Nubian women. It was not a 
market-day, but vv^e saw two of the women that were 
there on sale. They were bad stock, one of them 
being lunatic, and the other affecting lunacy with so 
much 5kill as to keep purchasers off. I was glad to 
see, that though they were only an expense to their 
owners, they were evidently treated with humanity. 

There is a large school here, founded and main- 
tained by some EngHsh ladies. It seems to be 
doing a good work. The American Presbyterians 
have a branch of their Syrian Mission here. So far 
as we had time to inquire, the work seems to be 
faithfully done, and as good a yield of fruit appears 
as could be expected from the agencies employed. 
But it is only a drop in the bucket. Yet the leaven 
will doubtless spread. 

Before leaving our camp here we rode out to see 
one of the places where Saul was struck down by the 
manifestations of the Son of God. This locality is 
nozv just outside the eastern gate, near the Christian 
burial-ground. Formerly, I understand, it was at a 
more distant point, and in a different direction. It 
seems to be shifted about to suit the convenience of 
those who make tradition a trade, with very little 
concern about the probable direction in which Saul 
approached the city. If this is the place, then he 
came by a very roundabout way. One is per- 



464 DAMASCUS AND THE BARADA. 

petually disgusted by the absence of all reason and 
probability in these traditions. 

Having spent Monday in seeing the city, we broke 
up camp on Tuesday morning, and started across the 
Anti-Lebanon range of mountains for Baalbec. But 
before taking a final leave of what is believed to be 
the oldest city in the world, we must ascend the 
mountain and see it from a commanding point. We 
soon left all verdure behind us, and our horses were 
toiUng up the steep mountain-path toward the 
"'Tomb of the Forty Apostles." Up, up we climbed 
for near an hour. From this elevated point we had 
the city and the entire oasis in full view. The form 
of the city has been compared to a spoon — it is much 
more like a huge pipe with a long stem — a very sin- 
gular contour. This is the only striking peculiarity 
discovered in the view, except that which distin- 
gwishes this from all other cities in the world — its 
rich emerald setting. 

From this position there is nothing to mar the 
beauty of the gardens, the concrete fences scarcely 
appearing in the distance. It looks like a forest, the 
trees being distributed so as to conceal the cultivated 
parts. Everywhere the slender poplar towers above 
the other trees, giving a most picturesque expression 
to the landscape by its graceful figure, and the darker 
and more decided hue of its foliage. ' 

It was an event in a man's life to touch upon this 
scene, and we indulged ourselves in reverie for some 
time. This was already an old city when Romulus 
and Remus were quarreling over the mud huts of 
their village on the Tiber, when the foundations of 
Tadmor were laid, when the Jebusite built his first 



DAMASCUS AND THE BARADA. 465 

rude fort on Mount Zion. This was a center of com- 
merce as long ago as there was any commerce. 
When Abram's affairs became so large as to be un- 
wieldy he employed ''this Eliezer of Damascus," a 
man trained to business here, to take charge of them. 
Perhaps only Babylon was as old or older. But 
Babylon is gone, Tadmor is gone, commerce has 
been shifting its centers a thousand times, nations 
have come into existence, played their great trage- 
dies on the stage, and disappeared, while here still 
stands Damascus. A hundred revolutions have been 
consummated within its walls. It has changed mas- 
ters, perhaps, ten hundred times. It saw the dawn 
of history — it is likely to witness the end of time. 

The Mohammedans have a tradition to the effect 
that the prophet, in one of his mercantile journeys, 
approached Damascus, but on coming in sight of it 
up here on the mountain, he exclaimed that as no 
man could have but one paradise he would not for- 
feit that in the future by entering this. So he never 
set foot in the city. Once he had got well inside he 
would have dismissed all apprehension of that sort. 

We descended the mountain on the western side, 
and in two or three miles came to the diligence-road 
to Beyroot, which follows the course of the Barada 
for some miles. We were to make camp to-night at 
Suk Wady Barada, so that our course in the main 
would be along the river, though at one point our 
dragoman insisted on leaving it for a better road. 
This we regretted, when we learned that by taking 
this course we missed seeing the great fountain in 
which the principal part of the waters of the lower 
J Barada come out of the mountain in a body. 



466 DAMASCUS AND THE BARADA. 

All along this stream It is fringed with poplar and 
other growths, and where the precipitous mountains 
retreat a little here and there, leaving space for small 
valleys, every foot is in cultivation. In many places 
irrigating ditches are taken out and trained along 
the steep mountain-sides, so that even they are made 
fruitful. I doubt if any one stream of the same vol- 
ume in all the world nourishes as much life as this 
one. Villages stand along in the gorge it makes in 
the mountains, often at intervals of only a mile or 
two. All around them is a mass of desert mountains 
except those acres that are touched by the water of 
the life-giving river. 

Our tent was pitched in a gorge, and we had a 
very disagreeable night on account of a fierce, chilly 
wind. Here we fell in with a party traveling under 
Cook's auspices, one of whom was Dr. Philip 
Schaff, with w^hom w^e spent- a delightful evening. 
On our leaving his tent at 9 o'clock the gray, barren 
mountains, towering above us on ail sides, took on 
an aspect of weird beauty in the bright moonlight 
that seemed to me the most peculiar I had ever 
seen. 

The next morning we climbed the mountains to 
the right of the road, about a mile from the village 
where we had camped, to see the remains of an old 
Roman road, which, at that point, was cut through a 
mass of solid and very hard rock. It was just wide 
enough for two chariots to pass. The sides of the 
rock through which it was dug are perfectly perpen- 
dicular, showing even yet the tool-marks, and con- 
trasting strikingly with the powder-blasted road-beds 
of our time, which leave the walls all reft and 



DAMASCUS AND THE BARADA. 46/ 

Tagged. At one point a space was polished and sur- 
rounded by moulding. In the panel thus made is a 
Latin inscription, setting forth that this road was 
made by the Emperor Lucius Verus at the expense 
of the people of Abila. So solid is this rock that 
the lettering is perfect to this day. This was in the 
second century of the Christian era. 

We followed the course of the upper Barada to its 
head, passing over on to a confluent of the Litany, 
where we camped for the night. It was difficult to 
tell where we passed from the waters of one stream 
to those of the other, as there is a continuous de- 
pression between the mountains from one to the 
other. 

On the upper waters of the Barada its valleys are 
wide, and the mountain slopes less precipitous, while 
every available acre is in cultivation ; but much of it 
is very sterile and will scarcely return the seed coan- 
mitted to it. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

BAALBEC— ZALEH — BEYROOT. 

\. - /HREE DAYS from Damascus brings you to 
I Baalbec by easy stages. There is a consider- 
able country village here, but the only real 
interest of the place is in its ruins. These have 
made it famous throughout the world. There are 
scarcely any architectural remains anywhere, coming 
from the old times, so well preserved as these. But 
they are not so old as many others — Karnak, for 
instance — nor so extensive as those at Karnak ; yet 
they are so massive as to be the wonder of architec- 
ture in all modern eyes. They are what survives of 
two temples — one very large, the Temple of Jupiter 
—and one small one, the Temple of the Sun. I say 
small, but that is only because it is put in compari- 
son with the other. If it were off somewhere by 
itself it would be a huge affair. 

The walls of the smaller temple are standing, and 
at their full height, but the arched roof is all gone. 
The ornamentation of the walls on the inside was 
very elaborate and very rich, consisting of mould- 
ings, projections, and figures cut in the stone in 
great variety. At the end opposite the entrance 
there was a space partitioned off by a series of 
arches, used, I suppose, for religious solemnities. 
In after-years, at lecist, it was so when the building 



BAALBEC ZALEH BEYROOT. 469 

was used as a church, as it was for a time, in the age 
of Constantine, and later. The ends of the broken 
arches still appear, and the stump of one of the sup- 
porting columns still stands ; but the other is pros- 
trate. Within this space the designs and carving are 
different, and perhaps more abundant. 

The front entrance is very large, but much injured 
now, many of the stones m the arches having fallen. 
It has been propped in one place to prevent a great 
keystone from coming down. Around the entrance, 
above and on both sides, there is much and elegant 
chisel-work in the stone. Before it was a portico, 
supported by fluted columns, with ornamented capi- 
tals, only two of which are standing now. This 
portico was, no doubt, a most magnificent and ele- 
gant structure, but nothing remains of it except the 
two columns I have already mentioned. I doubt 
not that it presented a gable, and perhaps arches, of 
rich design and delicate tracery. 

Besides this front portico there were rows of col- 
umns along both sides and the rear end, on the out- 
side, standing about ten or fifteen feet from the wall. 
These columns were the full height of the wall, from 
the top of which arched slabs, curving upward, 
covered the space between the wall and the columns. 
These immense slabs were ornamentally carved on 
the under surface, and in the center of each is a 
mythological figure of nearly life-size. On one 
which has fallen is the figure of Ceres. On some, 
perhaps, are busts of emperors instead of gods, but 
the greater number are of gods or goddesses. 

Very near this, and in the same inclosure, is the 
great Temple of Jupiter. It is a singular structure, 



470 BAALBEC — ZALEH — BEYROOT. 

and covers many acres of ground. The buildings in 
front of the principal temple were larger than the 
temple itself. The walls were very thick and very 
high. In some parts they were much broken, in 
others quite perfect. I can attempt no description. 
At the rear of this wonderful front structure, and 
considerably narrower, was an area surrounded only 
by coloimns on three sides, and the wall of the front 
building on the other. The columns were surmount- 
ed by a cornice, but there was neither wall nor roof — 
just these rows of columns and the cornice joining 
them on the top. 

All but six of these columns have fallen, and those 
that still stand are much injured on one side by the 
weather. Until 1759 there were nine standing, but 
the earthquake of that year prostrated three of them. 

The columns of the smaller temple are 46J feet 
high, and those of the larger 60 feet. Those of the 
smaller building stand around the walls, and are 
connected with them. The look of the whole is 
very grand. But the six of the other stand out by 
themselves, having the mountains in some directions, 
in other directions the sky, for a background. 

If we were disappointed in the size of the stones 
in the Pyramids, so we were here — only that the 
stones there were smaller, and these are much larger 
than we expected. 

Take the columns, for instance. Most of them 
are \a three pieces. At the base they are 7J feet in 
diameter, and taper but very little towards the top. 
Think of a stone 20 or 30 feet long, and 7 J across, 
liard limestone, or g:-anite, separated from the solid 
mass in the quarry, trimmed perfectly round, brought 



BAALBEC — ZALEH BEYROOT. 4/1 

to a high polish, moved several miles, lifted forty 
feet into the air, raised on end, poised and set on a 
column of two similar pieces, already raised! It 
makes my head swim to think of it. 

Then some of the single stones in the outer wall 
are thirty, forty, fifty, or more, feet long, the other 
two dimensions corresponding. The question of 
questions with all modern mechanicians is, how were 
these stones handled? What sort of machinery was 
used? What adjustment of levers, screws, wedges 
was it by which such stupendous forces were deliv- 
ered and directed, so as not only to move and elevate 
these immense blocks, but to lay them exactly in 
their places in the wall, or set them on end on the 
top of a column already forty feet high? The neces- 
sary fixtures for this elevation and placement must 
themselves have cost millions of money. 

We entered the great enclosure on horseback, 
through an arched vault, which must be a hundred 
yards long. This is now properly tindei^grotmd, but 
I could not determine whether it was always so, or 
whether the earth that covers it is not merely a mass 
of ruins. Before proceeding with our explorations 
we took our lunch in the peristyle of the Temple of 
the Sun, under the decorated ceiling, from which all 
sorts of gods and goddesses looked down upon us. 
When our train came up the tents of both parties 
were pitched in the Entrance Court of the great tem- 
ple, where we found room for 9 tents, 25 persons, 
and 48 horses, mules, and donkeys, with space for 
as many more. This court is 147 yards long from 
east to west, and 123 yards wide. 

But those who desire an elaborate description of 



4/2 BAALBEC ZALEH BEYROOT. 

these wonderful remains must seek it in books. The 
buildings were the work of the Romans. Two Latin 
inscriptions on the bases of columns which stood in 
front of the great temple set forth that it was erected 
and dedicated by Antoninus Pius and JuHa Domna. 

In the village, at a distance of a quarter of a mile, 
are the remains of a very small circular temple, well 
preserved, which is by some considered a gem of art, 
and which has, at least, the merit of being entirely 
unique in its whole design. 

Scarcely less interesting than the ruins are the 
quarries from which the stone was obtained. Many 
great blocks, already quarried and shaped for their 
place in the wall, lie still in the vast excavation, 
having never been removed. Others were partially 
prepared only, as if work had been suddenly 
arrested. Two immense square columns, separated 
from each other by a space of four inches, fifteen or 
twenty feet high, stand rooted in the living rock 
below, having never been separated from it. They 
were hewed as they stand from the solid bed in 
which they were once contained. 

But the lord of the quarry is a block 71 feet long 
by 17 wide, and about the same in. thickness. It is 
perfectly dressed on three sides to its full length, and 
was cut under, so that perhaps half the v/ork of de- 
taching it was done. Some have supposed that it 
was abandoned for the reason that the architect 
found it so large as to be unwieldy. But there is 
abundant sign, both in the quarry and in the outer 
wall of the building, that all work came to a sudden 
stand-3t:il before the structure was finished. Possi- 
bly the death of an Emperor, or the outbreak ^f war, 



BAALBEC ZALEH — BEYROOT. 4/3 

or some such event, brought it to an end. After the 
miracles of stone-Hfting which had already been per- 
formed, it scarcely admits of a question that this 
might also have been done. At least they would 
have separated it from its bed and made the attempt. 

How much the idolatrous religions of the ancients 
cost them ! Is it not true that the devotees of false 
religions bestow their money and labor more freely 
than the followers of Christ? Surely nine-tenths of 
us are not more than half-converted. 

Leaving Baalbec we descended the valley of the 
Litany, which is well cultivated, and quite thickly 
populated. This valley divides the Lebanon from 
the Anti-Lebanon range, and in the scope of country 
formerly called Ccele-Syria. Some forty miles south 
of Baalbec the river forsakes the valley, turns ab- 
ruptly to the west, and plunges through a gorge of 
the Lebanon on its way to the sea. 

After lunch at a wayside khan we turned from the 
main road to visit the village of Kerak Nith, just at 
the edge of the valley on the Lebanon side. Here 
is the tomb of "the Prophet Noah." We paid two 
or three piasters to see it. Is it worth seeing? Let 
me describe it. We entered a rickety door, which 
was unlocked for us, ascended a flight of stone steps 
to a low stone roof fifty yards long. On this again 
we found a long, low, narrow structure, to which we 
were admitted. In this we found a sort of rude 
sarcophagus, made of plaster, I should say, measur- 
ing three or four feet across at the largest part, and 
— now as to the length of it: my pencil hesitates, 
but — it is 44 yards — 132 feet. If any conscientious 



474 BAALBEC ZALEH BEYROOT. 

or cautious reader doubts, he must make a visit to 
Kerak Nuh, and see for himself. 

A half-hour farther brought us to the Christian 
village of Zahleh. This is a flourishing town of 
15,000 inhabitants, lying on a slope of the moun- 
tain, on both sides of the brook El-Berduni, a copi- 
ous mountain torrent which flows into the Litany. 
As we approached this village our eyes were 
delighted with the fresh, white aspect of its houses, 
many of which are of good size, and actually have 
glass windows. This goes to establish the truth 
of the statement several times made to us, that the 
most vigorous and enterprising people of this country 
are the Christians. They are decidedly superior to 
both Mussulmans and Druses. 

The Christians of Syria are more numerous than I 
had supposed, and are divided into three classes — 
the Maronites, who are Roman Catholics ; the 
Catholic Greeks, who acknowledge the supremacy 
of the Pope of Rome; and the Orthodox Greeks, 
who adhere to the Patriarch of Constantinople. The 
Maronites are a Syrian sect which submitted to the 
See of Rome some centuries ago, on condition of 
being permitted to use the Syriac as their sacred 
language, and to retain the privilege of marriage for 
their priests. At a later day a large body of the 
Greeks of Syria, having a quarrel with the Patriarch, 
were courted by Rome, giving their adhesion to the 
Pope, but reserving the use of the Greek ritual, and 
the privilege of marriage for the priests, with some 
other special rights, conceded at the time, but now 
being gradually taken away. 

These Christians are scarcely less superstitious 



BAALBEC — ZALEH — BEYROOT. 4/5 

thaa the Moslems ; yet the universal testimony is 
that they are a shade more elevated in morals and 
intelligence, and that they are greatly in advance in 
industry and enterprise, being decidedly the most 
prosperous class in the country. Their progressive 
character and evident increase, it is supposed, pro- 
voked in part the massacre of i860. Since that 
event the Turks have been compelled by the Euro- 
pean Powers to allow a special government of the 
District of the Lebanon, the Governor being a 
Christian, and under a species of Protectorate of the 
Christian Powers. Under this government a new era 
of prosperity has dawned upon the country, which is 
strikingly in contrast both with its past condition and 
the present condition of other parts of it. The 
taxes, when collected, are faithfully returned. Prop- 
erty is held by a more secure tenure, and life is pro- 
tected with som_e efdciency. 

Yet religion among them is a mere form. A man 
is a Christian, not on the ground of repentance and 
faith, but because he has been baptized and confirm- 
ed. Faith he has, in a certain sense — a faith that, is 
very intense and bigoted — but of that faith which is 
a vital grasp of the atoning merits of Christ he knows 
nothing. The Church exercises no moral discipline, 
a consequence of which is that the most profane and 
profligate are in the Church, and reckoned Christians 
all the same. It is ritualism gone to seed — Roman- 
ism in full flower. Religion is in the ritual, not rest- 
ing on any spiritual, nor even moral basis. 

Never was a reformation more needed. We were 
glad to find here in Zaleh two Americans of the 
Presbyterian Board — Messrs. Dale and March. 



4^6 8AALBEC ZALEH BEYROOT. 

They have been at work here less than four years, 
but with marked success. They have organized a 
Church, had a numberof instances of most remarkable 
conversions, established several schools, built a house 
of worship, and extended the work abroad in many 
neighboring villages. They are men of large intelli- 
gence and great energy, and seem to be devoted to 
their work with single-minded consecration. They 
have encountered strenuous opposition from the na- 
tive clergy. The Jesuits are opening opposition 
schools. In fact, the presence of the missionaries 
creates an opportunity for the Jesuits, who are dis- 
trusted and hated by the native priests, especially as 
they are not under the control of the resident 
Bishops. But on the plea that their work is neces- 
sary to counteract the influence of the missionaries, 
they are allowed to come in with their convents and 
schools. Whereupon the missionaries rejoice; for 
the people are learning to read, and will be able to 
read the Bible as it becomes more and more dissem- 
inated. The Jesuits are driven to the extremity of 
even making a translation of the Bible for their peo- 
ple into the vernacular language. 

At Zahleh we met Mr. Dale, who accompanied us 
to our camp. As we passed over the spur of the 
mountain he pointed out to us, across the valley of 
the Litany, the ruins of Chalcis, which v/e had not 
time to visit. On the way we met Mr. March, com- 
ing from a visit to some of the neighboring villages, 
who also turned back and accompanied us. At 
Shtora we came again into the diligence-road. Half 
an hour farther on was our camp, where our mission- 
ary friends dined with us, and spent the evening. 



BAALBEC ZALEH BEYROOT. 47/ 

We invited Dr. Schaff, and the three or four minis- 
ters who ' were of his party, to meet them. They 
were full of information, which they gave us freely, 
varying thus the monotony of camp-life for us in a 
most delightful v/ay. The occasion was as pleasant 
to them as to us, for in their inland station they 
rarely see friends from America. They are not with- 
out some solicitude about the war which, as we have 
just learned, is now imminent, though they have no 
fears as to their own safety. At ten o'clock we sang, 
*'A11 hail the pov/er of Jesus' name!" Dr. Schaff 
led us in prayer, and our friends returned to Zahleh 
to devote their lives to the work of God in Syria. 
Our hearts went with them, and we did most earn- 
estly commit them to the care of Him v/hom they 
serve. 

The next morning we crossed the great Lebanon 
range by the diligence-road, the only improved road 
in all Syria. It is owned by a French company, and 
there is scarcely a better road in the world. The 
diligence runs each way between Damascus and 
Beyroot twice a day, making the distance, seventy 
miles, in fourteen hours. The road is Macadamized, 
being kept smooth and hard from one end to the 
other. 

From the summit of the range Beyroot and the 
Mediterranean were descried, but we had a descent 
of 5,000 feet to make. Three or four miles from 
town we took our lunch. A Nubian had come out 
in a hack, in hopes of getting a job. He offered to 
take us in cheap, but we could not think of ending 
our tour of Palestine and Syria in so tame a fashion. 
So we mounted our faithful steeds again, and made 



4/8 BAALBEC ZALEH BEYROOT. 

our last ride at a brisk pace, bringing up at the New 
Oriental Hotel, on the very shore of the sea, with 
the waves dashing against the rocks immediately 
beneath our window. 

For my part I enjoyed the saddle, and was not at 
all over-fatigued. It was going back to old habits, 
and proved to me that I was not yet disqualified for 
circuit work. I had become quite attached to my 
little bay horse. He was the best walker I met with 
anywhere on the road. He was " tough as a pine- 
knot," though it must be confessed that he was both 
lazy and hard-headed ; albeit a good stout hickory 
always brought him to a sense of his duty. He had 
but to know that it was there and would be used — 
the actual use of it being seldom necessary. Under 
such circumstances he was a most exemplary 
quadruped, and when I remember what roads he 
carried me over without ever making a serious mis- 
step, I do most freely forgive him everything I con- 
sidered wrong at the time, and part from him with a 
feeling of gratitude and regret. 

Beyroot is a city of 80,000 inhabitants, having 
grown to this importance from a population of 
20,000, in less than thirty years. What the cause of 
this surprising and sudden start into prosperity is, I 
scarcely know. Several causes have been at work. 
The Christian Government of the Lebanon has 
brought a large district of country immediately 
tributary to it into new life. The French road to 
Damascus has made traffic with the interior practi- 
cable and easy. It is also the head-quarters of 
Protestant Missions in Syria. One English com- 
pany has brought the water of Dog river to the city. 



BAALBEC ZALEH — BEYROOT. 479 

conveying it to every part, while another has hghted 
it with gas. 

Be it noted that all this stir in the immemorial 
stagnation of the place is due to foreigners. This 
despot-ridden country has not life enough to make a 
road, or construct water or gas-works, nor, indeed, 
to do anything else. It would be difficult to invent 
a worse government than this. It seems to have no 
idea of government, except as an engine for collect- 
ing taxes ; nor has it the sagacity to collect the tax 
on principles that will enable the people to pay more 
another year. To squeeze out of them the. blood 
that happens to be in their veins now, is the ultimate 
wisdom of the Turk. 

The American Board of C. F. M. established 
Missions here more than fifty years ago. The work 
is now in the hands of the Presbyterian Board, and a 
great work it is. The actual communicants do not 
number over one thousand, but the American reader 
will get no idea from that fact of the extent and 
importance of the results already secured. The 
Bible has been translated into the vernacular, schools 
have been opened in many towns and villages, a 
large printing establishment is in operation, and a 
flourishing college, with a medical department, is 
well launched. 

In this Mission there are : Central stations, 5 ; 
out-stations, 44; ordained missionaries, ii; female 
missionaries (unmarried), 6; native pastors, 3; native 
licensed preachers, 12; school-teachers, 60; other 
helpers, 14; preaching-places, 38; girls in boarding- 
schools, 125; pupils in day-schools, 2,107. The 
number of volumes printed at the Mission Press, 



480 BAALBEC ZALEH BEYROOT. 

30,000; tracts, 15,000; pages printed during the 
year, 14,317,200; pages of Bibles, 8,410,000. 

Besides the translation of the Bible, a number of 
valuable text-books, scientific and historical, have 
been prepared for schools, in Arabic — a great work; 
for many of them will be used in native schools. 

In addition to these Missions, the United and Re- 
formed Presbyterian Churches have occupied several 
points, and established a good many schools. 

I ought to have said that the statistics given 
above are four years old. The statistics of this date 
would show a large increase in several items, and 
steady advance in all, for the work was never more 
prosperous than now. 

There are, then, "The British Syrian Schools and 
Bible Mission," carried on by Church of England 
people, with schools at Beyroot, Damascus, Tyre, 
and other places, and 2,652 pupils enrolled. The 
Free Church of Scotland, also, has quite a large 
number of schools. All taken together there is a 
volume of Protestant and Evangelical agencies and 
influence active here, that has already quickened the 
country to a preceptible degree, and promises to 
produce a moral, intellectual, and religious revolu- 
tion. 

The College, which I have already mentioned, 
does not belong to the Mission proper, nor to any 
Church ; yet it is founded on strictly Evangelical 
principles ; the Bible is a text-book, and the fait'h of 
the gospel is earnestly inculcated by all proper 
means. It has been built and partially endowed by 
Christian men in England and America, the property 
being held by trustees in America, incorporated 



BAALBEC ZALEH BEYROOT. 48! 

under the general law of the State of New York, in 
1863. The corporators were, Wm. A. Booth, Wm* 
E. Dodge, David Hoadley, S. B. Chittenden, of Ne-w^ 
York, and Abner Kingman and Joseph S. Ropes, of 
Boston. A special act of the Legislature, in 1864, 
invested them with important special privileges. The 
immediate management of the Institution is in the 
hands of a local Board of Trustees, most of whom 
reside at Beyroot. Already it has done a great work, 
and stands head and shoulders above any educa* 
tional institution in Syria. For the extent of its 
curriculum and the thoroughness of its instructions 
in the country it has no rival. The graduates of th^ 
Medical Department already number twenty, who 
are the only thoroughly educated native physicians 
in the country. 

We received very cordial attentions from Mr. 
Edgar, the American Consul at Beyroot. He is the 
son of Dr. Edgar, one of the former Presbyterian 
pastors of Nashville, a man largely known in the 
South. 

Our visit to Syria has been very suggestive* 
Here, where there was a high state of civilization^ 
while yet the greater part of Europe was still in a 
savage condition, society is now in a semi-barbarous 
state. How is this ? Why is it ? Is Moslemism 
responsible for it ? Did these countries, in rejecting 
Christ, recoil into stagnation and render progress an 
impossible thing ? A mere glance at the country is 
sufficient to show that it is not due to physical con- 
ditions, for there is everything here to constitute the 
basis of the highest prosperity. Enterprise, intelli- 
gence, and moral power, are all that is needed to 



482 BAALBEC ZALEH BEYROOT. 

make this what it once was, one of the most mag- 
nificent countries on the face of the earth. The 
Turk and the False Prophet have shed, a bHght 
upon it. 

In proof, see the prosperity already brought about, 
in less than twenty years, under the Christian Gov- 
ernment of Mount Lebanon. 

On the last day of our stay in Beyroot, our Consul 
invited us to ride with him to the Prussian Cemetery. 
There we saw a granite shaft of good size. On one 
side we read, " Rev. Calvin Kingsley, D. D., Bishop 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Born in the 
State of New York, United States of America, Sept. 
8, 1812. Died in Syria, A^^ril 6, 1870, while making 
for his Church the first Episcopal tour of the globe." 
On the opposite face are thes-e words : " May his 
tomb unite more closely Asia and America." The 
Consul gives attention to the monument, and it is in 
good condition. The grounds around it are neat, 
and very well kept. 

In the rear of the Mission Press is a small ceme- 
tery in which I read the following epitaph on a small 
and modest slab, which serves as a horizontal cover- 
ing of a grave : " Rev. Pliny Fisk. Died Oct. 23, 
1825, JE. 33 yrs." That was all. It is enough. If 
I am not mistaken, Pliny Fisk was the first man sent 
by the American Board to Syria, the forerunner of 
all that followed, and all that is to follow. 

Protestant Missions are not a failure, but a great 
success. We have had large observation of them 
now, from Yokohama to Beyroot. The men engaged 
in the work are generally of a high order of intelli- 
gence and personal force. They are the represen- 



BAALBEC ZALEH BEYROOT. 483 

tatives of the Son of God among the heathen-— 
and among the half-heathen found in degenerate 
Churches. They are charged with his word, which 
is quick and powerful, and is proving itself to be so 
by incipient victories already achieved. This divine 
word is the sword having two edges that proceeds 
out of his mouth, and pierces to the dividing asunder 
of the joints and marrow, of the soul and spirit, 
being a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the 
heart. The nineteenth century is a new point of 
departure in the history of the Church. It opens 
the missionary epoch, and is itself the outgrowth of 
the great revivals of the eighteenth century. Those 
revivals are again the fruit of Reformation, whick 
expended itself in controversy for two hundred 
years, until its ideas became crystallized and its 
forms defined and animated with their proper spirit. 
The forces that are potential in the Eternal World 
are coming into full expression, and he is going forth 
conquering the nations. Surely he will never stay 
his hand until the last enemy is prostrate under his 
feet. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

ON BOARD THE STEAMER ESPERO. 

ON TUESDAY, May i, at 6 o'clock, p. m., we 
embarked on the steamer Espero, of the Aus- 
trian Lloyd line, for Constantinople, taking 
leave of Beyroot after a very pleasant sojourn of 
three days. Be it known by all travelers that the 
Austrian Lloyd steamers do no extra feeding. Their 
dinner-hour is five, and when they sail at six, as they 
generally do, if a passenger gets his dinner he pays 
for it extra. Moreover, they take great pains to land 
you at the port of destination y?/5^ before a meal. In 
the run of the year a good deal of bread and meat is 
$aved by this close sort of economy, and I must say 
this Austrian bread is worth saving. It is the sweet- 
est bread I have ever eaten. 

Our captain is a burly Italian, a funny, genial fel- 
low, who plays a practical joke on some one every 
now and then. He takes more pains to get off a 
poor trick than any man I ever saw. For instance, 
he fastened the plate of Cook's dragoman to the 
table-cloth with sealing wax, just before dinner one 
day, burning a hole in the table-cloth in doing it. 
How he did laugh when the man's plate was to be 
changed and the table-cloth was lifted with it. The 
man who can get so much laughter out of a joke no 
better than that is to be envied. 



ON BOARD THE STEAMER ESPERO. 485 

We have several Turkish officers on board, bound 
for Constantinople. The war has begun ; the whole 
weight of Russia is coming upon the Empire, and 
Turkey "expects every man to do his duty." Some 
of the officers of the lower ranks amuse me. Their 
uniform is blue, and the skirt of the coat is sewed to 
the body in plaits nearly an inch wide. H. says 
they remind him of a negro in his master's cast-off 
coat. Those we have seen are certainly as ungainly 
a looking set as can be well imagined. Now and 
then one makes a show of dressing up, but there is 
always sure to be something outre. I have seen 
some quite elegantly dressed, except that their feet 
were in slippers which were down at the heel, with 
no stockings on. 

But at Smyrna some officers of high rank got 
aboard. They were faultlessly dressed in European 
style, and as fine-looking men as you will see any- 
where. One, especially, is a man of very imposing 
presence, who would be taken for a man of mark in 
any country. They are very courteous and self-pos- 
sessed. One of them sits next to me at meals. On 
my asking him if he spoke English, he shook his 
head and said, " No." But we manage by a sort of 
pantomime to keep up an exchange of amenities at 
the table, in which he will never allow me to get 
ahead of him. I have taken a decided liking to him, 
which, I imagine, he reciprocates. Two things I 
hope for in connection with this Russo-Turkish war 
— one is that the Turks may get a good drubbing, 
for they need it ; the other, that this particular Turk 
may not get a hole shot through him. 

Most of our passengers are Englishmen and 



486 ON BOARD THE STEAMER ESPERO. 

women. Two of them are clergymen of the Estab- 
Hshed Church. They and their party are the jolHest 
set on board. They are the only ones who act like 
snobs. One of the reverend clergymen, especially^ 
puts on airsj and affects the elegant gentleman in 
many respects, while at the same time he pays 
assiduous attention to the ladies, and often sings 
snatches of humorous songs with grimace and 
gesture that — well, I will not say it. This gentle- 
man was invited to read prayers on Sunday, but he 
had the grace to get his older and better-behaved 
friends to officiate. After prayers there would have 
been a sermon, but the ship was just landing at 
Mitylene, and the confusion was so great as to ren- 
der it impracticable. 

Nearly all on board are people of good sense and 
modest behavior — that is, I mean of the first-class 
passengers — and some of them are men of very large 
information. The English, so far as our observation 
extends, travel more than any other people, and, with 
very few exceptions, they are sensible travelers. 
They dress for it in a plain, substantial way, and do 
not overload themselves with luggage. They are 
ready to take things as they come, rarely making 
any ado if they encounter some mishap or have some 
discomfort to undergo. Only now and then one is a 
little snobbish. Perhaps they are somewhat too 
much given to ordering servants about in hotels and 
on ships, and once in a while one is noisy and 
blustering in his way of doing it. One of our snobs, 
going ashore in a boat at Mitylene, quarreled with 
the boatman on his return, and fell foul of him with 



ON BOARD THE STEAMER ESPERO. 48/ 

his fists. J am glad to say he was not one of the 
clergymen. 

The English ladies know exactly how to travel, 
dispensing with all finery and nonsense, dressing in 
stout goods of somber colors, and taking things as 
they come. Two unmarried ladies, not over-young, 
out without any male friend, taking care of them- 
selves under Cook's auspices, were in Dr. Schaffs 
party through Palestine. I admired them, not for 
their personal beauty — for they had none of that — 
but for their good sense, which they were liberally 
endowed with, for their unaffected good manners, 
their remarkable intelligence, self-possession, and 
iirst-rate horsewomanship. They were provided with 
gentle, but active, and sprightly horses, and were as 
fearless riders as any in the company, complaining 
less of fatigue then the men. They sometimes un- 
consciously led the cavalcade at so rapid a rate that 
the venerable Dr. Schaff was compelled to break 
into an undignified canter to keep from getting lost. 
He protested that it had never been in his expecta- 
tions to gallop through Palestine, but he was obliged 
to do it to keep in sight of the rest. Once the spell 
was broken, and he had begun to gallop, I half sus- 
pected him of enjoying it. Certainly he was not 
always behind. I am not sure but that with practice 
he would excel as much in horsemanship as in 
Hebrew. I have rarely met with a more genial, 
enjoyable man. 

Both companies of us were photographed together 
amid the ruins of Baalbec. Two negatives were 
made, in one of which a heavy shadow fell from rne 
upon the Doctor. He consoled himself that the 



488 ON BOARD THE STEAMER ESPERO. 

shadow was not upon his head, and I acknowledged 
that it would be impossible to throw that in the 
shade. It always shines out clear. 

But I must get back on board the good ship 
Espero. We had on board the Rev. Dr. Post, of the 
Mission at Beyroot. He is, by the necessities of his 
position, in a large practice as a physician and sur- 
geon at Beyroot. His reputation as a surgeon 
is all over Syria. Patients come to him for capi- 
tal operations from great distances. He is also 
Professor of Anatomy and Surgery in the Medical 
Department of the College, and of Botany in the 
Scientific Department — work enough for one small 
man ; but, like many intellectual men of small 
stature, he has the nervous and muscular fiber that 
can bear almost any strain. He can turn off work 
and stand it like Dr. Summers. He is going to Con- 
stantinople with the scientific text-books which have 
been prepared in Arabic by the missionaries, to show 
the Government that the hard work of the Mission 
looks to the substantial and permanent advancement 
of the Turkish Empire, and to request certain fran- 
chises for the College. But I suspect the Govern- 
ment has its hands too full of the war to give him 
much attention. Little cares it, at best, about the 
education of the people, though it does sometimes 
grant favors to distinguished men when they apply. 
At any rate, under whatever auspices of Govern- 
ment, and in spite of all wars, these great labors and 
educational enterprises, carried on in the name of 
the Son of God, will go forward to the happiest 
issue. 

In addition to the first-class passengers, we have a 



ON BOARD THE STEAMER ESPERO. 489 

motley crowd below, in all styles of dress, European 
and Oriental, of all colors, from the fair Greek to the 
jet-black Nubian, men and women, distributed about 
in the most picturesque way; each individual or 
group provided with its own mattress and quilts, 
which serve them to squat on by day and sleep on at 
night. The gabble they keep up is incessant. Some 
of them are remarkably fine-looking, and some as 
squalid as dirt and rags can make them. There is 
not a single native traveling first-class, except the 
three distinguished officers who came on at Smyrna. 

A devout Mussulman is often seen in his devotions. 
He takes no pains to get out of sight. The "corner 
of the street" is as good a place as he wants for 
prayer. Turning his face toward Mecca, he bows 
repeatedly, touching the ground with his head, and 
runs rapidly over his set form of words. The floors 
oF mosques and chapels for prayer are always cov- 
ered with mats, and the man w^ho performs his devo- 
tions out of doors, so far as I have observed, always 
spreads down his blanket or cloak, to stand and 
kneel and prostrate himself upon. There is always 
a decent aspect of reverence. I think I have never 
witnessed an instance of indecent flippancy. 

Our first landing-place was at Larnaka, in the 
Island of Cyprus. After Paul and Barnabas had 
been solemnly and formally set apart to the work of 
Missions, at Antioch, they came first to Cyprus. On 
this island the first missionary trophies were won, 
though not on this part of it. But we were in the 
neighborhood of those great events. Just beyond 
the mountains, to the west of us, was Papl>os, where 
the Deputy, Sergius Paulus, was converted, and 



490 ON BOARD THE STEAMER ESPERO. 

where the sorcerer, Elymas, was struck bUnd. Of 
what a career was that the beginning ! 

We landed and walked through the town, visiting 
the bazaar, an old church and convent, and, best of 
all, a Greek school. In the church I suggested to 
Dr. Schaff to go up into the two-story pulpit, and 
give us a sermon, which he did, but in an unknown 
tongue. However, it had the merit of being shorty 
consisting of two passages of Scripture in Greek, 
followed by the apostolic benediction. The school 
was a large one. For our entertainment the boys — 
for there were no girls — sang one or two pieces, and 
one of them recited the Lord's-prayer and the Credoy 
but in the most rapid and irreverent manner. 

We visited Mr. Cesnola, the brother of the former 
United States Consul, who was so successful in col- 
lecting antiquities here. Besides the two collections 
that have been sent to America, there is a fine one 
still here, which we saw. Mr. Gesnola received us 
with great courtesy, and presented each one of us 
with a specimen. 

From Cyprus we steered direct for Rhodes, so 
long the head-quarters of the Knights of St. John. 
Here we saw a specimen of the harbors of ancient 
times. Heavy stone walls, built out into the water, 
affording ample room for the ships of the old-time 
mariners, and sheltering them completely from 
storms and waves, are still in perfect preservation. 
But they have out-lived their day. Great steamers 
cannot enter. I was impressed, however, when I 
went in, in a little row-boat, with the perfeet security 
of the pl^Lce. There was a brisk breeze, and the 
waves were running somewhat, outside; but withia 



ON BOARD THE STEAMER ESPERO. 49 1 

the space protected by these walls the surface was 
perfectly smooth. The masonry must be of the 
most remarkable solidity; for, at the very least, 
these walls, so perfect, have stood against the waves 
from the days of the Crusades. 

We visited such of the castles, barracks, hospitals, 
and churches of the Knights as are still standing. 
There are two houses pointed out as residences of 
the Commanders. The buildings are all of stone, 
very solid, but not of the magnificent proportions 
nor high finish I expected to see. They are in rather 
a rude style. Coats-of-arms appear here and there, 
in relief, with an occasional figure of Christ, or the 
Virgin, or a saint; but the carving is not abundant. 
Yet one cannot but honor the history of those 
doughty knights> whose chivalry was devoted, how- 
ever superstitiously, yet, according to the light they 
had, to the honor of Christ and the glory of his 
kingdom. They were high-souled men, who held 
for ages this stronghold of Faith, in the Levant, by 
force and^ arms, against the power of the infidel. 
But they are gone now — gone forever ; for the Chris- 
tian civilization has realized a spirit and taken on 
forms that render such an arm of support and 
defense impossible. Her battles now are on a dif- 
ferent arena, and she has come to know the weapons 
of her warfare better. They are not carnal, but 
mighty through God to the pulling down of strong- 
holds. The Church has become more skillful of 
fence with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word 
of God. With this she turns to flight the armies of 
the ahens, and overthrows the mighty. If, now and 
then, the Russian makes the defense of Christians 



492 ON BOARD THE STEAMER ESPERO. 

the pretext of a war, all the world knows that it is 
5u^ a pretext — that political considerations, at bot- 
tom, determine her course at ail times. 

In the Grecian Archipelago we have islands in 
sight all the time, and, generally, on our right, the 
mainland. Cnidos, Kos (Coos), Mitylene, Troas, 
remind us of that journey of the great apostle, when 
he "must keep this feast at Jerusalem." On Thurs- 
day evening the sun went down directly over Pat- 
mos, which lay just in sight upon the horizon. Pat- 
mos ! It looks like any other island in the distance, 
most truly, for its glory is not of its rocks or hills. 
But of what a drama was it the theater! With what 
scenic splendors, with what display of celestial gran- 
deurs, with what coming and going of mighty angels, 
did God open the unseen world, and disclose the 
future there ! The book sealed with seven seals was 
opened by the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Harps 
and trumpets, thunders and voices, shook the atmos- 
phere, and lightnings striped the sky. But the 
drapery of the vision all passed away, and Patmos 
became only as another island. 

We landed at Smyrna. This was the seat of one 
of the Seven Churches. There was no fault found 
with this Church. "Be thou faithful unto death, and 
I will give thee a crown of life." This was the mes- 
sage of her Lord to her, from among the sublimities 
of Patmos. This, also, was the warning, " Fear none 
of those things which thou shalt suffer," for persecu- 
tions were in the near future. " Some of you shall be 
cast into prison, and ye shall suffer tribulation tea 
days." The faithful Polycarp did indeed suffer here 
afterward, bearing a glorious testimony to the last. 



ON BOARD THE STEAMER ESPERO. 493 

and loving not his life unto the death. They have 
made a poor modern tomb, under a cypress-tree, 
which they point out to travelers as Polycarp's tombi 
It is on an elevation back of the city. There is an old 
castle, built, probably, in rhediaeval times, of stone 
and fragments of old marble structures, on the spot, 
they say, where the martyr died. 

Sniyrna is now the second city of the Turkish 
Empire, having a population of 200,000. More than 
half of them are Greek Christians. There is a large 
Jews' quarter. Passing through it we saw many 
good-looking people, and many signs of prosperityi 
Two or three fine groves of cypress and several 
large gardens add greatly to the beauty of the placCi 
The shops in the Franks' quarter look for all the 
world like small retail stores in America. The 
native bazaar is like all other bazaars in Oriental 
cities. Viewed from the castle, or from the sea, the 
city is one of the prettiest we have seen. One thing 
impresses me — wherever we have seen any decided 
marks of prosperity we have found a predominant 
Christian population. So it is here in Smyrna. 

It was in our plans to run down to Ephesus by 
rail; but our steamer was a day late, having been 
delayed by foul weather off Jaffa, and the captain 
would not give us time for it. But, as it turned out, 
we did remain long enough to have made the trip* 
This was a great disappointment to us, for we had a 
great desire to see that city where the books of the 
magicians were burned. Interesting ruins are still 
to be seen. It seemed a pity to be so near, and yet 
not able to meet our expectations. 

This railroad was constructed and is owned by an 



494 ON BOARD THE STEAMER ESPERO. 

English company. Foreign enterprise again. Poor 
Turkey ! She does nothing for herself; she has not 
sufficient life, and does not know how. 

At Mitylene we discharged a good deal of cargo — 
amongst other things some barrels of petroleum — 
" Refined— Baltimore." 

Monday morning we had the ''plains of Troy " on 
our right. It is a beautiful and fruitful region. Of 
course, we thought of Priam, and Hector, and the 
wooden horse, and Helen ; but much more did we 
think of another and later event. It was at Troy 
(Troas) that St. Paul, having reached the western 
extremity of the continent of Asia, had the vision of 
the man from Macedonia calling to him, " Come 
over and help us." But this Troas, though in the 
same neighborhood, is not to be confounded with the 
Homeric city. That call was the voice of God. In 
that little ship that sailed by a straight course from 
Troas to Samothracia, and from thence to Neapolis, 
were the fortunes of Europe and the ages. The 
gospel of Christ contained the seed of the civilization 
ef the Germanic peoples, and on that voyage this 
©ne man carried it into Europe. This was its fourth 
great point of departure. Jerusalem, Joppa, Antioch, 
Troas. From each of these successively the word 
of God started out on a new campaign, and to new 
conquests. 

Some events stand by themselves ; others are so 
related to human affairs that they continue to repro- 
duce themselves to the end of time. Such was this 
voyage of the apostle to Europe. It carried into t!ie 
West that faith which was to type European society, 
and infuse into it all that wonderful energy v/h:ch 



ON BOARD THE STEAMER ESPERO. 49^ 

would make it what it is to-day. In fact, the gospel 
contained all that is distinctive in the Western civili- 
zation, in germ. Long time was necessary to bring 
it into full development — indeed, it is not yet at its 
highest point ; but, after being repressed and retard- 
ed for ages, its proper issue began to appear in th© 
higher civilization of Europe and America. 

If all this is true — and it seems to me to be 
unquestionably so — then St. Paul carried in his own 
person across the iEgean Sea, to Europe, the print- 
ing-press, the telescope, the cotton-gin, the power* 
loom, the modern plow, the steam-engine, the micro- 
scope, the magnetic telegraph, railroads, Kepler, Sir 
Isaac Newton, the Herschels, Christopher Columbus, 
and America. What a cargo for one little ship ! 

When Asia took Mohammed to be its Prophet, 
rejecting Christ as its Saviour, it staggered back 
some centurtes toward the barbarism from which it 
had emerged. Since that time it has had its history 
of wars, has witnessed the creation and decay of 
great empires ; but in government, in art, in industry, 
in science, in commerce, its only movement has been 
in a retrograde direction. At one time the Moslem 
power seemed to have sufficient force to subjugate 
Europe, and did actually establish its capital on the 
west bank of the Bosphorus ; but there was wanting 
that inward vitality which would suffice for develop- 
ment ; and now at this moment, having given the 
seeds of civilization to the West, Asia is receiving 
back from the West the ripened fruit. The tide of 
life that rolled westward is now, after so many ages, 
returning in a refluent wave upon the shores from 
which it took its first departure. The little of new 



496 ON BOARD THE STEAMER ESPERO. 

life that is starting up in the East at this moment 
comes from Europe and America. 

And most deeply is the new life of the West 
needed here. If we saw men made beasts of burden 
in Japan and China, we have seen the same thing in 
a worse form here. The most fearful burdens are 
borne on men's backs. They are actually prepared 
by a pack-saddle so constructed as to distribute the 
burden evenly all along the spine. On this the most 
incredible loads are placed, and the loaded man, 
going half bent, approximates the very posture of a 
dumb brute. I saw two men in Smyrna carrying a 
Jog that I am sure any six men I ever knew in 
America would have found too heavy for them, even 
for a rod or two ; but these men had it to carry for a 
great distance. These pack-saddles are in common 
use in Constantinople, and men may be seen stagger- 
ing under great boxes and barrels along every street. 
To-day I saw three men strain themselves painfully 
in lifting a bale of cotton upon the back of another, 
who walked off with it I know not how far. The 
4oom of the laboring man here is not overdrawn in 
$he primal curse. Two words give the sum. of his 
existence — overwork and scant pay. What horses, 
^nd mules, and steam, and wheels, do in America, 
men do in Asia. 

The plain of Troy is bounded on the north by the 
Dardanelles — the Hellespont — which is a long, nar- 
row strait connecting the ^gean Sea with the 
Sea of Marmora, which is again connected with the 
Black Sea by the Bosphorus. On the west side of 
this strip of waters is Europe, which we sighted first 
^t the entrance of the Dardanelles, May 7. Nov. 28 



ON BOARD THE STEAMER ESPERO. 49/ 

we had landed at Yokohama, and from that day to 
this, with the exception of eight or ten days in 
Egypt, we had been travehng in Asia — a period of 
more than five months. What a world in itself this 
great continent is ! so vast in extent, and, in many 
•parts, teeming so with human life. More than one- 
half of the human race live on it, for its population 
exceeds that of Europe, Africa, and America. In 
some parts of it there was once the highest civiliza- 
tion, but at this time the most cultivated and 
enlightened portions of it have a civilization, cer- 
tainly, of a very low order. I know there is a class 
of literary men who will criticise a statement of this 
sort, and affirm that I am unjustly applying to them 
my standard of civilization, and judging them by 
that, and that there can be no absolute standard. 
Of course this class of men affect great large- 
mindedness, if not great wisdom ; but, in truth, they 
seem to me to be shallow in proportion to their 
breadth. 

Is there not, after all, a positive standard by which 
all civilization is to be judged? It seems to me so. 
The general intelligence of the common people, the 
cultivation of the arts and sciences, the comforts and 
refinements found among the laboring classes, archi- 
tectural elegance of houses, command of the forces 
of nature, and such knowledge of the laws of nature 
as to free the mind from a superstitious feeling with 
regard to its operations— these, among other things, 
it seems to me, give a just standard by which all 
civilization must be tried. Judged by-such a stand- 
ard, there is no civilization of any high order from 
Yokohama to the Dardanelles. Much has been writ- 



49^ ON BOARD THE STEAMER ESPERO. 

ten about the magnificence of Oriental architecture ; 
but we saw no really elegant architecture that is not 
to be traced to European influence, unless a few of the 
most famous mosques may be excepted, but it is not, 
by any means, certain that they are exceptions, prop- 
erly. It is certain that the most celebrated edifices 
of the Moguls in India owe their magnificence and 
perfection chiefly to European artists. 

I have already spoken of the work of the Presby- 
terian Board of Missions in Syria. What is called 
the Turkey Mission is in the hands of the American 
Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions. The 
work in this field has been, and still is, prosperous. 
It lies in European Turkey and Asia Minor. It has 
quite a large number of Churches, widely scattered, 
with a membership of near 6,000, and a registered 
Protestant community of 30,000. 

Registered Protestant Community. This phrase sug- 
gests a state of things which the American reader 
will not understand. Every person in Turkey is 
registered as of some faith, for purposes of the civil 
and municipal administration — especially the collec- 
tion of the taxes. Each religious community in a 
village — Mussulman, Greek Orthodox, Greek Cath- 
olic, Maronite, Druse, Protestant — has a chief person 
through whom the Government deals with the com- 
munity. This person is notified of the amount of 
tax his community is expected to pay. The Gov- 
ernment looks to him for it, and he collects it as he 
may choose. But if he reports any one as delinquent 
the Government authorities quarter a soldier in the 
house until the amount is forthcoming. The soldier 
makes himself at home, orders whatever he wants. 



COIJ'^TANTINOPLE. 499 

and makes himself aj intolerable as possible. The 
poor tax-payer in such cicumstances will sell his 
last she-goat, or borrow money at any rate of inter- 
est, to rid his family of the hateful intruder. 

Before any man has himself registered as a Pro- 
testant he has weighed the matter well. Especially 
as in most cases he will be subjected to many mor- 
tifications and annoyances by so doing, for gener- 
ally there is very pronounced and vexatious opposi- 
tion. It is known that many are very favorably dis- 
posed, and, indeed, secretly convinced, who have 
not yet had the courage to come out. But as the 
Protestant communities become stronger, and grow 
to such numbers in given localities as to suffice for 
all social ends, adhesion becomes less difficult, and 
the work progresses more rapidly. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

CONSTANTINOPLE. 



Vp/HE best position for a great capital, both politi- 
I cal and commercial, in the world we inhabit is 
that occupied by the city of the Sultan. Any 
one who will take the trouble to study its geographi- 
cal relations will soon convince himself of this fact. 



500 CONSTANTINOPLE. 

It is the center of the most remarkable system of 
waters, the like of which is nowhere else found. It 
has the great Mediterranean Sea on one hand, and 
the Black Sea on the other, and is on that most re- 
markable channel which connects the two with a 
depth of water at all points much more than suffi- 
cient for the largest vessels. The ^Mediterranean is 
2,500 miles long from Gibraltar to Beyroot, with a 
coast line greatly extended by the ^gean and Adri- 
atic Seas. It washes the shores of Europe, Asia and 
Africa, and touches many of the fairest and most 
fertile regions of the earth. Human civilization 
dawned upon its shores. From immemorial ages it 
has been the highway of an opulent commerce. The 
length of its coast line, following all its irregularities, 
and taking its larger islands into account, is more 
than 10,000 miles. On the other side the Black Sea 
extends from the Bosphorus to the Caucasus, bound- 
ing Asia Minor and Armenia on the north, and 
Western Russia on the south, having its coast line 
extended by the Sea of Azof, and receiving the 
waters of the Danube, the Dnieper, and the Don, 
opens to it a vast area and some of the richest 
regions of Europe. Thus all of Western Asia, 
Eastern Europe, and Northern Africa, are at the very 
door of Constantinople, which is accessible to them 
by easy water communication, and is so related to 
the different parts as to hold the thread of their com- 
merce in her hand. The area that she thus com- 
mands extends over a range of latitude and embraces 
a variety of productions which ought to give rise to 
the most active commerce, of which she would be 
the center and chief point of distribution. Then the 



CONSTANTINOPLE. 5OI 

Straits of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal open all the 
world to her, east and west. If the Bosphorus had 
been in the hands of the people who have made 
London, Constantinople would have been equal to 
two or three Londons. 

Just at the end of the Bosphorus, where it enters 
the Sea of Marmora, is Constantinople, on the Euro- 
pean side. As you enter from the sea of Marmora 
you have the city on your left. By the time you 
fairly enter the Bosphorus you see an arm of water a 
mile wide starting out at right angles from it on 
your left. It penetrates the land about ten miles, 
first in a direct course, and then, toward the head of 
it, curving to the right. This is the Golden Horn, 
the mouth of which is the harbor of the city, which 
lies on the sea on one side and on the Golden Horn 
on the other, with an oval point on the Bosphorus, as 
the shore curves around and turns up the Horn. 
The business front is on the Horn. 

But, as at New York, there are three cities here — 
one on the opposite bank of the Golden Horn, called 
Pera, or sometimes Galata, and one on the Asiatic 
side of the Bosphorus, called Scutari. The principal 
city itself is called Stamboul by the Turks. So, on 
the western side of the Bosphorus there are Stamboul 
and Pera in Europe, with the Golden Horn dividing 
them, and on the opposite side Scutari in Asia. 
Southward from Scutari, and only a short distance 
from it, fronting on the sea, is the old city of Chal- 
cedon, a place of little consequence now. 

This cluster of cities is said to contain a popula- 
tion of 1,000,000. 

The shores of the Bosphorus are bold and beautiful 



$02 CONSTANTINOPLE. 

in a very high degree, often rising in steep elevations 
of three or four hundred feet, just above the city. 
The ground on which the city itself stands is not so 
elevated, but sufficiently so for the finest effect ia the 
display of its buildings. Those which show to the 
best effect are the mosques, of which there are 
several very large ones, their domes and minarets 
rising above all other buildings, with a cluster of 
smaller domes around the base of the great one. In 
Stamboul there are also the buildings of the Sublime 
Porte — that is, the great Government offices — not in 
a very commanding position. But the building 
occupied by the Minister of War is some distance 
from the others, on a commanding site. Besides 
these public buildings and mosques the houses of 
Stamboul are generally of a poor class. The same 
is true of Scutari. But a large part of the city of 
Pera is occupied by Europeans, and in this quarter 
the houses will average well with those of our Amer- 
ican cities. The East and the West are face to face 
here. You may pass from the streets occupied by 
elegant European retail stores, cross the Golden 
Horn on a bridge, and in twenty minutes find your- 
self in the midst of an Oriental bazaar. The contrast 
is striking and impressive. The two civilizations are 
represented in the aspects of the contrasting scenes. 
The European shop, or store as we call it in America, 
with ample room, and goods classified and neatly 
ranged on shelves, the whole place having an aspect 
of order and convenience, with an air of artistic 
arrangement, on an open street, belongs to a different 
world from the narrow, covered street of the bazaar, 
with its little crowded shops, eight or ten feet 



CONSTANTINOPLE. 5O3 

square, having the whole front open upon the very 
edge of the street; or, what is often seen, the goods 
exposed for sale in the street itself, sometimes on a 
little platform, and not unfrequently on a piece of 
canvas, spread on the pavement. 

In Stamboul there is no room for carriages, except 
on one or two thoroughfares. Even in Pera only a 
fev/ of the streets are wide enough for wheels, and 
they are paved so badly with stones a foot in diam- 
eter, as to make it unpleasant. Most persons get 
about on foot, or on horseback. 

We reached Constantinople on the same steamer 
with Dr. Schaff's party. An Enghsh gentleman and 
his tv/o daughters had joined the party at Beyroot, 
so that we had quite a crowd together. On landing, 
there was a little show of examining trunks by a 
custom-house official, and th n the baggage was 
placed on the backs of the human animals, who 
were waiting for a job. A walk of half a mile up a 
rather steep street, paved with large stones so as to 
make a lumpy surface, each stone being from six to 
twelve inches, brought us to the Luxembourg Hotel. 
It is the poorest hotel in the city, having any claim 
to respectability, a fact which we did not know 
beforehand. If we had the thing to do over again 
we would never set foot inside of it. 

We were in Pera. After breakfast the whole 
party started out to see Stamboul on horseback. 
You ought to have seen us, ten men and four ladies, 
four of the men Americans, counting Dr. Schaff, all 
the others English, mounted on fat stallions that 
were squealing and spoiling for a fight all the time. 
It happened that the finest one of the lot fell to me 



504 CONSTANTINOPLE. 

—a magnificent Arab, pure white, fat, well groomed, 
and so full of life that he could not hold himself 
still. But he was well broken, and by nature, tracta- 
ble. Besides that, he had the most powerful bit, 
with tremendous leverage ; it almost hurt my con- 
science to draw upon the reins. Three hostlers went 
along on foot, whose business it was, when two of 
the horses charged upon each other, to dash in and 
part them. We crossed over to Stamboul, went to 
the Sublime Porte, and got a firman authorizing us 
to enter the mosques, rode tlirough the streets an 
hour or two, and passed out through the old wall at 
the Seven Towers. How proudly my Arab did 
comport himself, and how anxious he seemed to 
whip every other horse in the crowd; yet he 
responded to my voice and hand with more of affec- 
tion than fear, apparently, so that I soon felt quite 
at my ease. But after we got beyond the wall, some 
of the party set off, not on a gallop, but on a run at 
full speed. I thought my Arab would go mad. He 
was fairly frantic with the irrepressible sense of 
power. To be passed and left behind by meaner 
horses was too much. It took the full advantage of 
the powerful bit to enable me to moderate him into 
a rapid gallop, and at that he bounded into the air, 
and shook his head, and kicked, so that he was a 
magnificent spectacle. Could an old-time Methodist 
preacher be condemned if he enjoyed such a moment 
with a sort of intoxication of delight? In fact I 
claim credit for not disgracing the cloth by distanc- 
ing every thing on the field. I scarcely know any- 
thing in the way of physical enjoyment better than 
the sense of being borne along by a bounding horse 



CONSTANTINOPLE. 505 

that scarcely feels your weight while yet you rein 
him and control him at your will. 

We visited all the principal mosques, though none 
of them are equal to the great mosques at Cairo, nor 
at all comparable to the Mosque of Omar at Jerusa- 
lem. That of St. Sophia has a special interest for 
Christians, as it was built for a Christian church, and 
long used as such. The Moslems changed it in 
some respects, but the body of the building is as it 
was made at first. In some places even the cross is 
to be seen, though, in most instances, it is more or 
less mutilated. It was built by the Emperor Justi- 
nian, who boasted, when it was dedicated, that he 
had eclipsed the work of Solomon. It is indeed a 
magnificent structure. But I cannot undertake to 
describe it. Another old Christian church, the 
Church of St. Irene, is now used as an arsenal. 
Guns, and pistols, and swords, are stacked all over 
the floor, and hang thick on all the walls and col- 
umns. 

We happened at Constantinople at the time of the 
Annual Meeting of the Missionaries. It was an 
occasion of great interest, especially as the war just 
commenced may place some of the missionaries in 
the interior in difficult, and even perilous, situations. 
Their annual sacramental-service was one of much 
interest, and constituted another occasion, of which 
we have enjoyed so many, in which we might com- 
mune with the people of God in the symbols of our 
Lord's death. From San Francisco on, our way has 
been marked by sacramental opportunities. What 
though these brethren are not of our own immediate 
sect? and the service not in the form we are most 



5 06 CONSTANTINOPLE. 

accustomed to ? They are the followers of our 
Lord, and this bread is broken "in remembrance of 
him." Moreover, they are men who have forsaken 
all to follow Christ. Our fellowship with them is 
deep and holy. 

At that service I met the Rev. Dr. Long, of the 
M. E. Church. He was the first Superintendent of 
the Bulgarian Mission of that Church, but has been 
now for some years Professor of Natural Science in 
the Robert College at Constantinople. 

The history of this institution is a remarkable one. 
Mr. Robert, a merchant in New York City, a man 
intelligent in Oriental and missionary affairs, came 
to the conclusion that the cause of Christ would be 
served in a very effectual way by the establishment 
of a college, under evangelical auspices, at Constan- 
tinople. He had the good fortune to secure ground 
near the city, on which he erected a large stone 
building, well adapted to its purposes. It is situated 
six miles from the lowe-r bridge of the Golden Horn, 
on one of the most commanding summits in the 
vicinity, just at a curve of the Bosphorus, command- 
ing a magnificent view of that most remarkable 
channel in both directions, toward the city, and 
toward the Black Sea. The view from the summit 
of the college-edifice is remarkably imposing. 
Across the Bosphorus the Asiatic hills rise in grand 
masses, steamers and sails dot the water-line below, 
villages in quick succession lie along the shore, the 
palaces and suburbs of the city, on both banks, 
refresh the eye to the right, the Black Sea is just 
beyond the range of vision on the left, the hills of 
Europe lie in the rear, while the curve of the Bos- 



CONSTANTINOPLE. 50/ 

phorus, with its deep depression between the two con- 
tinents, forms a magnificent arc on the cord of which 
the college stands. I believe I have never known a 
public building in so grand a situation. 

Upon the invitation of Dr. Long, I spent a night 
at the college. There have been as many as 200 
students at one time in attendance, though the num- 
ber at present is reduced to 1 20. The cause of the 
falling off is not to be sought outside of the prostra- 
tion of the business of the country, which sympa- 
thizes with the universal stagnation in Europe and 
America, and, from local causes, is exceptionally 
severe in Turkey. I was informed by intelligent 
men that for two years there has been no business 
done here beyond a trade in the necessaries of life. 

Students come from all parts, but chiefly from 
Bulgaria. Three or four different languages are 
represented among them, and as it is necessary to 
have a uniform language for the college, the English 
has been selected. Before entering the classes the 
student must be able to pass an examination in that 
language. 

This institution is not connected with any Church, 
but is founded upon a strictly evangelical basis. 
The religion of the Bible is taught in it as a part of 
the curriculum, and the word is preached in its 
chapel. Its graduates go abroad everywhere, deeply 
grounded in the saving truths of the Christian faith. 

The curriculum of the college covers the whole 
classical and scientific course, and it has established 
the reputation of thoroughness wanting in the 
native schools, which must in better times command 
a large patronage among the higher classes. The 



508 CONSTANTINOPLE. 

scientific and philosophical apparatus, I observed, is 
very ample and in excellent condition. 

In company with Dr. Schaff I attended the open- 
ing exercises in the morning. After roll-call, reading 
of the Scriptures in concert in English, and prayer 
by the Rev. Dr. Washburn, the acting President, Dr. 
Schaff was called upon to address the students. 
When " the old man eloquent " sat down, the cheer- 
ing was the heartiest I ever heard in a college. As 
for myself, I will risk the egotism of saying that the 
opportunity of addressing those young men was one 
of the most gratifying incidents of my tour. I have 
rarely had a better average of faces before me, or 
spoken to a more attentive or responsive audience. 
By the way, I had one false impression corrected. I 
had supposed that every Sclav had light hair and 
complexion, and blue eyes. In many instances quite 
the reverse is true. * 

The Mohammedan patronage of the school has 
always been small. Just now there are none of that 
class. Missionary laborers here have little or no 
access to the Moslem population. It is next to im- 
possible for a Mohammedan to avow himself a con- 
vert to Christianity, not only on account of the over- 
whelming social pressure, but also on account of offi- 
cial interference. It is among nominal Christians 
alone that anything is or can be done, so long as the 
Ottoman rule continues. 

The Turks impress me favorably in some respects. 
Physically, they are a fine race. After their fashion, 
they are cultivated. Their manners are easy and 
pleasant. So long as their religious prejudices are 
out of sight, they are polite. They are brave and 



CONSTANTINOPLE. 5O9 

self-possessed. As a matter of course, there must 
be great force in them to have acquired, and to re- 
tain for centuries, such foothold in Europe. The 
time was when it seemed as if they would master 
the whole of Europe. True, their power has been 
waning for a long time now, and for a quarter of a 
century they have owed their continued existence, 
in Europe at least, to the English. For some real 
or fancied cause, England has thought it necessary 
to her general policy to keep the Sultan on the Bos- 
phorus. But in spite of all, the work of disintegra- 
tion goes on. She has lost Greece, as well as 
Eastern Hungary. Roumania and Servia are as 
good as lost. She finds little Montenegro more than 
a match for her. It is said she is ready to give u.p 
Crete. Even in Syria, the Government of the Leba- 
non has a certain autonomy, which almost amounts 
to independence. In Africa she retains only a pre- 
tense of suzerainty over Egypt and the Barbary 
States, and it is likely that before these lines are in 
print her boundary will be changed so that both in 
the East and in the West she will show a diminished 
area upon the map. 

The cause of this is inherent in the Turks them- 
selves. They are not progressive ; they are a human 
fossil. In immediate contact with that Europe which 
is so vital with forces born of Christian thought, fos- 
sil Turkey must suffer disintegration. It is the order 
of the day to exhume and scatter fossils — to label 
them, and lay them away in museums. The Turk is 
a barbarian, and barbarism cannot exist in Europe. 
The day is rapidly approaching when it can no longer 
exist even in Asia; but in Europe it is already intol- 



510 CCinS^aNT-IxsOPLE. 

erable. Br-lgsriar- massacres, under the very nose of 
Christiap* E'lrope, are a stench that cannot be borne. 
Upon no pretext of financial or imperial exigency 
can Engb.nd continue to patronize such a Govern- 
ment. At this moment the ministry of Great Britain 
'represent the commercial and imperial instincts of 
the nation on the Eastern question, while Gladstone 
represents the conscience of the English people. 
The Ministry, it is true, have Had a sort of formal 
triumph in Parliament; but Christian civilization has 
the real triumph in the fact that the Government is 
forced to declare itself neutral in the war, thus aban- 
doning its barbarian protege to its fate. 

Events crowd upon each other in time of war, and 
I am well aware that before this gets into type there 
may .be a new state of facts. In any course of 
eventualities, the Powers, especially England, will 
see to it that the supremacy of the Bosphorus shall 
not fall into the hands of the Russians. 

But the day is advancing when the empire of the 
Sultan will be no more. The gangrene has spread 
too far and struck too deep to be arrested. Even 
the Turks themselves feel that they are under the 
shadow of a swift-coming doom. The hour is inevit- 
able, and is near, and Europe will have to assemble 
her embassadors in high debate on the question of 
the Bosphorus and of Constantinople. The Bos- 
phorus must be free — must be the property of the 
world. So much, I suppose, may be taken as a fore- 
gone conclusion. But to v/hom shall Syria belong? 
and Asia Minor ? and the European Provinces ? 
Poor preparation for self-government is there any- 
where. How shall they be preserved from anarchy ? 



CONSTANTINOPLE. 5II 

How shall the advance of civilization be assured to 
them ? Must they be partitioned among the Great 
Powers ? or is local government, under the protecto- 
rate of the Powers, possible ? What greed of empire 
may not be awakened ! 

But above all, Constantinople ? — how to dispose of 
Constantinople ? Let it be a free city, say some. 
Let the young kingdom of Greece have it, say 
others. Ah ! Greece, a new destiny of empire dawn- 
ing upo»n Athens ? Who can tell ? At the least, she 
will desire to annex Thessaly and Macedon. With 
less than this she can scarcely be a respectable 
power. 

But the future is not within my horoscope. At 
best, I can only see men as trees, walking. The 
light of the present is reflected upon it but dimly. 
But at dawn we know the sun is flaming along up 
toward the horizon, and that under his resplendent 
disc the damps and darkness of the night will vanish 
like the hideous phantasms of an oppressive dream. 
All " mephitic vapors" and stifling, miasmatic death- 
odors will be dissipated. And the dawn is upon the 
Levant — not Phoebus, drawn by celestial steeds 
evolving flame by friction from his whirling wheels, 
but the very Sun of righteoXisness is mounting 
the sky and taking supremacy amid the signs of 
heaven. The doom of barbarism is in his coming. 
*'Mephitic vapors" of ignorance, and the mouldy 
smell of superstition, and oppression, and despotism, 
and infidehty, must yield to the glow of his benefi- 
cent beams. So much we may predict with assur- 
ance, but what the effect may be upon the map of 
the world I cannot conjecture. That must be left to 



512 CONSTANTINOPLE. 

diplomacy, and, perhaps — to war. But no diplo- 
macy, nor even war, brutal as it is, can check the 
civilizing, saving power of that blessed gospel, whose 
radiance shines more and more unto the perfect day. 

The preceding part of this was written before the 
war had fairly commenced. I then supposed that 
fighting would begin much sooner than it did, and 
that a few decisive battles would end it. But the 
unprecedented floods in the Danube delayed opera- 
tions for more than a month. This delay was 
invaluable to the Turks, enabling them to prepare 
for the ponflict. 

The forces of the Sultan have exceeded my 
expectations only in one respect. I knew, as I 
said at the time, that they were " brave and self- 
possessed," but I did not see how they were to 
command resources sufficient for one campaign. 
They had not been able to pay interest on the pub- 
lic debt for three years. In large portions of the 
Empire the taxes had been collected for a year in 
advance, and they were already resorting to forced 
loans. With a prostrate commerce I did not sup- 
pose this could be made to yield so much as it 
has. This is written Oct. 25, 1877. 

As to the final issue, my opinions are not changed. 
The success of the Russians seem to me inevitable, 
and if the disintegration of the Turkish Empire is 
delayed it will be through the interference of the 
other great Powers of Europe. 

While I say so much as this, I disclaim any 
special confidence in my ability to understand the 
future, but it does seem to me that the Turkish 



CONSTANTINOPLE. 513 

Empire is too rotten to stand in the presence of 
European civilization. 

To an American it is cause of gratulation, upon, 
visiting the East, to find America contributing so 
much to the advance of the dawn here. By preach- 
ing the gospel, creating literature, and establishing 
colleges, the new West beyond the Atlantic Ocean 
is contributing mightily to the final result. It can- 
not but be that when the revolutionizing forces of 
modern civilization shall have reached their issue, 
American thought will be found to have been a 
powerful factor in the processes which led to it. Fof 
myself, though there is so little done by Methodists 
of either hemisphere in this particular field, I rejoice 
greatly that the work is in hands so truly and deeply 
evangelical. The presence of God is with the 
American missionaries in Eastern Europe and West- 
ern Asia. My fellowship with them I have felt to be 
as unselfish as it is deep. If they do not advance 
the glory of my particular Church, they do what is 
the only vital thing — they advance the glory of 
Christ. 

But amidst it all my heart yearns for China. 
There is our opportunity. God himself has set before 
us the great and effectual door there. By his help 
and grace we will go in and possess the land. 

17 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

ATHENS. 

y^HE GREAT Plain of Attica is bounded on the 
' I south by the Saronic Gulf, on the west by- 
Mount ^galeos and Mount Parnes, and on 
the east by Mount Hymettus and Mount Pentelicus. 
I give the boundaries as if the valley lay north and 
south ; but, in fact, from the south end its course is 
a little east of north. The highest of the moun- 
tains named is a little over 3,000 feet. They are bold 
in outline, and in the distance seem bare. In fact, 
there is but a scant vegetation upon them, with here 
^nd there a slope covered thinly with trees of a small 
growth. 

This Great Plain has an average width of not more 
than eight miles, and is about twice as long as it is 
broad ; yet, comparing one thing with another in 
Greece, it is, what its name purports, a great plain. 

There is a range of independent hills running 
north and south in the valley, near its eastern edge, 
rising southward from Pentelicus, and terminating 
about three miles from the Gulf About midway 
of this range is Lycabettus, which is the highest of 
these independent hills, being about 900 feet high. 
South of it, and in the same range, though separated 
from it by a valley near a mile in width, is the Acro- 
polis, 400 feet high. To the west and south of the 



ATHENS. 51 J 

Acropolis there are several other elevations, sepa** 
rated from it by narrow valleys, or ravines rather, 
from which the range drops down and ends. 

In the valley between Lycabettus and the Aero* 
polis lies the modern city of Athens — the neopcUs^ 
called by the Greeks, .^z'^^;^*^. The old city occu'- 
pied the same area, and also spread around the east*- 
ern end, and to the south side, of the Acropolis. 

Of what this city was in the time of its classical 
splendor I will not write, nor of the unhappy vicis* 
situdes of its mediaeval and later history. At thfe 
beginning of this century it was a town of \o,QOb 
inhabitants, but at the end of the revolution in 183^ 
it was a ruin. 

What it is now it owes mainly, I suppose, to its 
classical renown ; for that, I imagine, more than any 
thing else, determined its selection as the capital of 
the new kingdom of Greece. It is not well located 
either for a commercial or political center. Its salu* 
brious atmosphere, its reputed freedom from earth* 
quakes, which are frequent and severe at Corinth, 
and its memories, no doubt, secured for it its pres- 
ent metropolitan position. " What is it that makes 
Athens?" I asked an intelligent Greek. The reply 
was prompt and concise: "Three things — it is the 
center of education — it is the center of the Gov* 
ernment; it is the center of Hellenism." The cen* 
ter of Hellenism — that signifies much. All ovef 
Europe and Western Asia, and to some extent 
in Northern Africa, there are Greek merchants 
and bankers, who are generally prosperous. When 
they have amassed a fortune they go to Athens to 
live, or, in some instances, expend large sums of 



5l6 ATHENS. 

money there in establishing institutions of learning. 
A family of Greek bankers in Vienna have devoted 
over a million of dollars in erecting an Observatory 
and an Academy of Sciences in the city of Plato. 
Another has established a great grammar school, 
named for its founder, Varvakion, his name being 
Barbakes. The modern Greeks give beta the sound 
of V. Still another — Arsakes — has built a girls' 
school, and endowed it very handsomely. This 
school is also named for its founder, the Arsakion. 

The University, with its four Faculties — of law, 
theology, philosophy, and medicine — its pharmaceu- 
tic school, anatomical museum, collection of ancient 
coins, cabinet of natural history, and its library of 
120,000 volumes, including a good many fine manu- 
scripts, is a grand seat of learning already, where 
twelve or thirteen hundred youths are in annual 
attendance. 

There is also an Archaeological Society earnestly 
at work, collecting and preserving the hitherto neg- 
lected specimens of classical art that abound in the 
country. They have exhumed many fine speci- 
mens of sculpture in Athens and elsewhere, and 
provided a spacious museum for their preservation 
and exhibition. Nearly all are more or less muti- 
lated; but, even to an uncritical eye, like mine, they 
show the genius that brought them into existence. 

Thus, since its emancipation from the deadly 
power of the Turk, in 1832, Greece has brought her 
great historical city into a new life, and started it 
upon a new career. From being nothing at the end 
of the war of independence, Athens has come to be a 
city of 65,000 inhabitants, with a large proportion of 



ATHENS. 517 

elegant houses, streets well paved, lighted with gas, 
and planted on both sides with beautiful shade-tre-es. 
Many of the streets are narrow and irregular; but 
several of them are wide and beautiful. In addition, 
the old port is revived, and Piraeus has a flourishing 
business and a population of 18,000 — all this from 
nothings in the space of forty-five years. Even an 
American can afford to call that Progress. Ay, and 
there are many religions in the Levant which await 
only the day of their redemption from the power of 
the Moslem to start up, like Greece and the Govern- 
ment of the Lebanon, into development and vigor. 
There is the most lamentable fatality in the touch of 
the Turk. He is the Upas-shadow of the Levant. 
A blight falls from him upon ail human activities. 

But it is the antiquities of Athens that attract the 
traveler; and while I cannot attempt any exhaustive 
account of them, I will attempt a running sketch. 

For this purpose let us ascend the Acropolis. 
Here we are, with the city on the north, at our very 
feet; for this Acropolis, over 400 feet high, is very 
steep. Beyond the city is Lycabettus, rising abruptly 
900 feet, and crowned with a mass of perpendicular 
limestone. To our right is the dry channel of the 
Ilissus, which separates this independent chain of 
hills from the Hymettus. The Ilissus is not above 
eight miles long in its whole course. In the time of 
heavy rains it becomes quite a litt4e torrent; but 
usually, as now, it shows a naked, rocky bed. Its 
course is within two or three hundred yards of the 
foot of the Acropolis. East of that, and from the 
very bank of it, the foot-hills cf Hymettus appear, 
and within two miles the bold ridge of the mountain 



5l8 ATHENS. 

begins to swell up, Its summit, nearly 3,000 feet hlgh^ 
running north and south for eight or ten miles. 
North of it, and a little east of north from us here on 
the Acropolis, is Mount Pentelicus, projecting its 
bold, rounded mass, over 3,000 feet high, farther 
westward than the line of Hymettus, so encroaching 
upon the valley on that side. Due north, the eye 
detects no mountain barrier, though the valley does 
actually rise into low hills. 

Turning now to the west^ we have a valley of level 
land about four miles wide just opposite to us, and 
still wider both to the north and to the south of this 
point. This reach of level land is covered with olive- 
trees, so that it looks like a forest from this distance, 
but, in fact, the trees are so thinly scattered over the 
ground that there are cultivated fields and vineyards 
among them. Directly west of us, beyond the olive- 
trees, is Mount ^galeos, about 1,500 feet high, and 
north of it Mount Parnes. These are separated from 
each other by the Pass of Daphne. All these moun- 
tains in sight are precipitous, with scant vegetation, 
and trees growing only on a few slopes. For the 
most part they are masses of limestone and marble. 
If Lycabettus were not in our line of vision we could 
see, from where we stand, a marble quarry on Pen- 
telicus, as white as snow. Remember, v/e are on 
the Acropolis. 

Turning to the west again we see a road crossing 
the plain, and trace it distinctly to where it disap- 
pears in the Pass of Daphne. It is the road to 
Eleusls. 

Coming down from the north, and running down 
through the plain, is the Cephisus, hid from our view 



ATHENS. 519 

by the olive-trees. It is more than twice the length 
of the Ilissus, and has a little water, though very lit- 
tle, in the summer time. These two insignificant 
streams are called rivers here. They are hard up for 
rivers in Attica. 

Turning to the south, and looking due south-west, 
we see the Island of Salamis, at a distance of not 
more than eight or ten miles from where we stand, 
and on this side of it the Straits of Salamis. Just to 
the right also we see the spur of the mountain on 
which the Persian monarch took his seat to con- 
template the battle of Salamis, and witness the des- 
truction of the Greeks. J3ut every school-boy knows 
that Xerxes did not see what he climbed the moun- 
tain to see. Poor man, he took a world of pains to 
bring that disaster upon his army and himself. But 
I am getting along slowly with my description. 
Look here, right over the water, just to the right of 
Salamis. Do you see that oval hill in the dim dis- 
tance ? That is the Acrocorinthus. It is even so — 
the Acropolis of Athens and that of Corinth are in 
sight of each other. 

Now turn your eye a little farther to the left and 
look still south-west. The houses you see are in the 
suburbs of Piraeus. You can scarcely see the water 
of the harbor, which is a very narrow strip of water 
projecting right up into the land. It is of limited 
extent, but very secure, and has a depth of water 
sufficient for the largest steam-ships. Indeed, we 
saw one of the great iron-clad monsters of the Eng- 
lish navy lying in it. 

To the left still, but yet west of south, you see a 
wider bay putting up inland. That is the bay of 



520 ATHENS. 

Phaleros, or Phalerum, the old port of Athens in the 
ante-classical times. Beyond is the Saronic Gulf. 

Having now swept the horizon in the distant view,, 
let us see what lies close around us. We have seen 
the city at our feet on the north, in the narrow 
depression between us and the Lycabettus. Let us 
turn now toward the left. Due west from the north 
side of the Acropolis is a much smaller hill, and 
about half as high. Indeed, it is a part of the same 
swell as the Acropolis, though the two summits are 
divided by a sort of ravine, and are, perhaps, two 
hundred yards apart. The end of it that is toward 
us is a perpendicular rock, narrow and coming to a 
rounded point. Toward the west it slants down and 
becomes much broader. Very near the end, on the 
south side, a flight of steps is cut in the perpendicu- 
lar rock. These steps are well preserved, except one 
or two near the bottom. Up this stair-way in the 
living rock, St. Paul climbed to the summit of Mars* 
Hill, and delivered that wonderful sermon which 
converted Dionysius the Areopagite. The court of 
Areopagus was held here in the open air. The area 
of the summit is small, but taking in the slope on the 
west, from which a'man on the highest point might 
be seen and heard, several thousand people might be 
assembled. On the 7zorth side, near the east pointy 
the rocks projected far over, until some years past 
they were broken by an earthquake and fell down. 
When this mass of projecting rock fell the Cave of 
the Furies ceased to exist. What has become of 
these fierce divinities I did not learn. 

Now we look again beyond the Areopagus, across 
another small ravine, just a little north of west, and 



ATHENS. 521 

see another swell crowned by a perpendicular crest 
of limestone. There is a modern building on it now,' 
surmounted by a dome. This is the Observatory 
built by the Vienna bankers, and the hill it stands on 
is the Hill of the Nymphs. Science usurps the very 
throne of Mythology. If the Furies have been dis- 
lodged by an earthquake, so have the Nymphs by an 
astronomer and a telescope. They are gone, all 
gone, and I trod their primeval haunts without the 
slightest feeling of trepidation. Indeed, I scarcely 
thought about them at the moment. 

But now — we are on the Acropolis still, you 
know — we have never come down, from the first — 
there is Mars' Hill west of the northern side of 
the Arcopolis. If we stand in the center it will be a 
little north-west. Then there is the Hill of the 
Nymphs farther over in the same direction. Now, 
turn your eyes to the left just a little. A little south 
of west of us, and due south from the Hill of the 
Nymphs, is another hill, not quite so high as either 
of the others we have seen. The top of this hill, 
like the others, is naked rock, but the rock does not, 
as on the others, rise up at any point into a cliff. 
But on the northern declivity of it the rock has been 
cut down by human hands to a depth of ten or 
twelve feet, leaving a perpendicular wall. In front 
of this the ground has been leveled off into a semi- 
•circular plat, a heavy wall having been built in the 
lowest part, so as to level up from that side as well 
as down from the upper. Thus the northern side of 
the hill is the arc of a circle artificially leveled, and 
the line of rock cut as I have mentioned is the cord 
of the arc. Midway of this cord is a mass of rock, 



522 ATHENS. 

hewed as it stood into proper shape, with plat- 
form and steps, to constitute a rostrum. This is the 
Pnyx, the place where the popular assemblies of 
Athens were held, and from which the Attic orators 
"fulmined over Greece." It was here, and not on 
the frontier, that the heroic Demosthenes fought 
Philip ! 

Turning still farther to the left you see the Hill of 
the Muses, the highest point in the immediate 
vicinity of the city except Lycabettus. For aught I 
know, the Muses are there yet, for no modern 
matter-of-fact intrusion is to be seen. As for the 
ruins of the monument of Philopappus, I should 
think the Muses and it might be at home together 
forever. They seem to be all of a sort. 

So much for natural scenery. Now let us look for 
objects of "art and man's device." 

First, then, a few hundred yards from where wc 
stand you see a new stone bridge across the Ihssus. 
Just there, in the same place, was a stone bridge 
2,000 years ago. The only use for a bridge there in 
the old time was for an approach to the Stadiimi — 
and the memories of the Stadium have caused it to 
be rebuilt now. 

The Stadium. Imagine a perfectly level plat of 
ground lying north and south, 650 feet long by io5 
wide. Then imagine a steep ridge of ground around 
the east and west sides, and the south end, from lOO 
to 150 feet high, the north end being open, and near 
and opposite the liissus bridge. At the south end it 
curves evenly. The foot of the ridge was trimmed 
to a true line, straight on the sides, and curving 
round the oval. At a distance of eight feet within 



ATHENS. 523 

the foot of the ridge all around was formerly a para- 
pet wall. The eight-foot way, between that and the 
foot of the ridge, was a paved corridor, the pave- 
ment being of white marble, as was also the parapet. 
The sides of the hill all around were seated \\j^ith 
white marble from Pentelicus, with aisles running up 
through the tiers of seats from the corridor. Thus 
spectators crossing the bridge would enter the cor- 
ridor, right or left, and, passing along it, distribute 
themselves freely among the seats to the number of 
50,000. 

An artificial underground way leads out of the 
Stadium, through the ridge, near the curve. 

The racers started at the open end, ran along 
inside the parapet, made the curve at the opposite 
end, and ran back along the other side to the open 
end again. The whole length of the track, in and 
back, was about 450 yards. The victorious contes- 
tant was crowned on the bridge amid the acclama- 
tions of the multitude, while the defeated sneaked 
out through the underground way, glad to get out of 
sight, and suffer unobserved the agony of their dis- 
honor. . 

Nearer to us, and on this side of the Ilissus, is a 
cluster of massive columns, fourteen in all, and at a 
little distance two others, erect, and one prostrate. 
It is only a few years since this" one was overthrown 
by a hurricane. This is what remains of the great 
Temple of Zeus Olympus, begun by Pisistratus, B. 
C. 530, but left in neglect until it was finished by 
Adrian, A. D. 135. 

Not far from this, again, is the Arch of Adrian, or 
Hadrian, as the Greeks write it. This arch is not so 



524 ATHENS. 

grand an affair as I expected a Roman arch to be, 
nor is it very massive, but it must have been 
excellently constructed to stand the wear and vicissi- 
tudes of ages and remain almost perfect. 

Turning to the east we shall see a singular octag- 
onal structure, very small, situated in the midst of a 
suburb of the city. It is much admired, and is said 
to be the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, but the 
natives call it the Lantern cf Demosthenes. 

In a northerly direction from where we stand on 
the Acropolis is the Tower of the Winds, but we do 
not get a good view of it from this point. It is an 
octagonal structure, and served as a sun-dial, a 
water-clock, and a weathercock. On each of the 
eight sides, on the cornice, there is a human figure, 
of nearly, or quite, life size, each one representing 
the particular wind that blows from his quarter — 
Boreas, Zephyr, and so on. Boreas is muffled in a 
heavy cloak, Zephyr is scattering flowers, and so 
each one represents the nature of the wind that blows 
from his side. These figures are not erect, but in a 
horizontal posture, as if floating in the air. The 
Athenians speak disparagingly of them as belonging 
to the Roman period, and in a somewhat degenerate 
style of art, but to my uneducated eye they seemed 
to be of a high order of merit. 

In the same general direction from our stand-point 
is the Gate of the Market, so called because it stood 
near the market-place, but which, it is said, formed 
the entrance of a temple. Near it is the Stoa of 
Hadrian. It consists of a wall, one fluted column,, 
and several monolith Corinthian columns, remarkable 
not so much for their beauty, as that, being Corin- 



ATHENS. 525 

thian monoliths, they are unique, nothing else of the 
sort being found here. But these objects are not in 
sight from the Acropolis. 

Turning now to the north-west we have in full 
view the famed Temple of Theseus. It is regarded 
as a perfect piece of art in its way, and is the best 
preserved of all the buildings that remain here from 
the classical period. It is supposed to have beeil 
erected by Cimon, B. C. 470, because it was said that 
Theseus had appeared at the battle of Marathon and 
secured the victory for the Athenians. It is said to 
be of a style earlier than that of the Parthenon ; yet 
if it was built by Cimon it antedated that wonderful 
edifice but a very few years. But it seems that 
Pericles created a new era in the history of art 
This temple is not a large nor a very elaborate one^ 
consisting of a cella and peristyle, with some elegant 
metopae, representing the achievements of Hercules 
and Theseus. Its proportions are perfect, and the 
sculpture would itself have rendered Grecian art 
immortal, even if Phidias had not followed with his 
peerless chisel. 

But what shall I say of the Acropolis itself? 
Hitherto we have been standing on it, looking at 
other objects near and remote. Now let us see what 
it is. It is a hill about 400 feet high. On three 
sides it rises up abruptly from the plain ; but on the 
west its roots, or lower swell, are connected with the 
Areopagus, and more remotely with the Hill of the 
Nymphs and- the Pnyx, which is connected with the 
Hill of the Muses. But, as to the Acropolis, it is to 
be remembered that it is immediately connected only 
with the Areopagus, and with this only by a com- 



526 ATHENS. 

paratively low root projecting out west. On the 
north, east and south it rises sheer out of the plain, 
9.nd on the west stands up boldly above the swell 
that extends to the Areopagus. From the top half- 
way down — in some places less and in some more, 
perhaps — it is a perpendicular rock, except on the 
west side, which is steep but not perpendicular. The 
3ummit is a plateau, the east half of which is level, 
and the west a slightly inclined plane. This plateau 
is 1,080 feet long, east and west, and 540 in the other 
4irection. The rock at the top, where it was not 
originally perpendicular, has been made so by walls. 
It was originally the castle or fort of the city. 

Now look down on the south side. For 200 feet, 
©r thereabouts, you have the perpendicular descent, 
and from that point down to the plain a steep hillside. 
Toward the eastern part of* this, at the foot, you see 
an amphitheater excavated into the side of the hill, 
a full half-circle, with marble seats rising one above 
another. Along the cord of the arc, on its lower 
line, are stones which were evidently the supports of 
gi marble platform. In front of the platform is a level 
^pace, and beyond that the circular seats rising in 
tiers. This is the Theater of Dionysius. It is all 
open above and in front, and always was. The plays 
\yere performed in the open air. At the west end of 
the south side this lower part of the hill is a nearer 
approach to the perpendicular. Here is the Odeum 
of Herodes Atticus. It is made in the same way as 
the Theater of Dionysius, only the ascent of the am- 
phitheater is at a much sharper angle, and in front 
there is a wall. But the amphitheater is shaped in 



ATHENS. 527 

the hill-side like the other. It once probably had a 
roof; but if so, it is all gone. 

This south side of the hill has been much encum- 
bered by modern and mediaeval defensive structures 
and debriSy which the Archaeological Society ar6 
removing. They have laid bare the marble ruins of 
a Temple of Esculapius within the past year. Half-* 
way up, just at the base of the perpendicular part, 
stand two elegant columns, said to be a choragic 
monument. 

On the other sides there are no ruins of any mo^ 
ment; but some grottoes have a mythological his*> 
tory upon which I cannot enter. 

Now let us imagine ourselves down, in front of the 
hill on the west side. The view is encumbered by a 
mediaeval wall, erected for defensive purposes. It is 
to be hoped it will soon be taken down. Inside of 
this wall we have first a steep ascent over natural 
rock which brings us to the Propylsa. This was a 
purely ornamental structure, standing, as its name 
suggests, in front of the gate through which the pla* 
teau on the summit was reached. 

The gateway is a shade over sixty feet wide. Re* 
member, this gate points west, and was the only 
approach to the summit. Outside of the gates, one 
on the south side of the wide gateway and the other 
on the north, are two wings, like porticoes, fronting 
each other. The side of the front of each is a row of 
columns, the outside and the ends being of heavy 
walls. At the western extremity of the wings the 
sixty feet space between them is traversed by a row 
of Doric pillars, very massive. The direction of this 
row of columns, six in number, is, of course, north 



528 ATHENS. 

and south. The two central columns — that is, the 
third one from each end — are fourteen feet apart. 
Stand between these two and look eastward. The 
great gate, with two smaller ones on each side of it, 
is forty-five feet from you, and the way to it has, 07t 
each side^ a row of Ionic pillars, smaller and more 
slender than the Doric pillars of the front row. Be- 
tween these two rows the way to the gate is over the 
native rock; but on the right hand, along the front 
■of the south wing, there is a stone stair-way. Pass- 
ing through the gates you will find on the inside 
another row of Doric columns running north and 
south. 

There was once surrounding these columns a won- 
derful structure of frieze and gable, metope and 
pediment, with sculptures of gods and heroes innu- 
merable. But that is all gone. Even the upper sec- 
tions of some of the columns are gone. Ruin, with 
her work half-done, sits enthroned over this structure 
which the ancient Greeks considered the greatest 
triumph of their unrivaled architecture. 

Inside of the gate you face the east. In front and 
to your right, near the south edge of the plateau, 
a.nd about midway of it, east and west, stand the 
ruins of the Parthenon. This grandest of all the 
Greek temples I cannot undertake to describe. But 
this I must say, that I had to come to Greece, and 
see the ruins of a structure erected 2,300 years ago, 
to understand how surpassingly beautiful the expres- 
sion of the Doric, the plainest of all the styles of arch- 
itecture, might become under the hand of a genius of 
the first order. One such creation of mingled beauty 
and grandeur, massiveness and elegance, is sufficient 



ATHENS. 529 

to secure its author a place in human memory to the 
end of time. 

A great part of all the beauty arises out of a 
simple rule. Except in the walls of the cella, which 
are little seen, there are 710 straight lines. The curve 
is very slight — so slight that you do not see it at 
first — but it is there in stylobate, column, and entab- 
lature, and before your eye detects the curvilinear 
form you have been charmed by the expression 
which results from it. 

The fluted columns, for instance, do not taper 
toward the top in straight lines, but in lines just 
slightly curving. The combination of effects from 
this is as wonderful as the various impressions made 
by it are delightful. In one column by itself it 
would not amount to much, but where many columns 
are seen in a hundred different angles, with respect 
to each other, the effect is as charming as it is 
subtle. And like the beauties of nature, you need 
not perceive the cause in order to enjoy them, 
though the pleasure is enhanced when the cause is 
discovered. The building is 243 feet by 108. 

Sculpture gave the finishing touch, and the entab- 
lature seemed once a moving scene of mythological 
reality. But little of that remains now. Much of it 
is effaced by time, and much is, with the Elgin 
Marbles, in the British Museum. 

In this temple stood the Athene Parthenos, the 
grandest work of Phidias. This image of Athene 
was all of ivory and gold, standing forty-seven feet 
high, and bearing on her extended left hand a statue 
of Victory, six and a half feet high. 

The ruins of one other building remain on the 



530 ATHENS. 

Acropolis, the Erechtheum, so named from one of 
the demigods of the Attic mythology. It, too, con- 
tained an image of Athene, who was the tutelary 
divinity of the Acropolis and the city. This image 
was called the Athene Polias, and was the oldest one 
of the goddess in possession of the Athenians. • This 
was a very beautiful little temple. One of the 
porticoes had its roof supported not by columns, but 
by female figures very elegantly designed. One of 
them is among the Elgin Marbles, having been 
replaced by an imitation in terra cotta. 

In an open space on the Acropolis you see the 
square on which the Athene Promachus stood. 
That was a statue of Athene 80 feet high. The 
Athenian sailor saw the crest of her helmet and the 
gilded point of her spear far out at sea. 

There were other images, and at least one other 
temple, on the Acropolis; but they have disappeared. 
Only the shattered ruins of the Propylsea, Parthenon, 
and the Erechtheum, with fragments of columns, and 
pieces of broken frieze and triglyph, remain. It was 
once populous with gods m.ade with men's hands, in 
temples made with mien's hands. 

Ah ! it was just over there on Mars' Hill — the 
Areopagus — that St. Paul preached that sermon. 
He saw the columns of the Propysea and the gleam- 
ing spear-point, probably, of the Athene Promachus. 
The Agora, lying in full view below, was studded 
with statues of gods and men, and full of shrines. 
The Acropolis was covered with "temples made with 
men's hands," and devotees were constantly coming 
with offerings in their hands. The beautiful Temple 
of Theseus was in full view. There was not, per- 



ATHENS. 531 

haps, in all the world, another spot where idolatry- 
made such a display. What the preacher saw fur- 
nished fuel for his eloquence. I never in all my life 
so enjoyed the 17th chapter of Acts as I have in 
reading it here. 

The present condition of Greece is in many 
respects interesting and hopeful. The Government 
has not reached a condition of real stability, nor is 
full liberty of religion granted to the people. The 
Greeks are not aware of it, but they were so long 
under the government of the Turks that they have 
retained much of the spirit of Turkish barbarism. 
But there is progress — which there is not among the 
Turks — and where there is progress there is hope. 

The Greek Church seems wholly destitute of the 
life of religion. I am convinced, from large inquiry, 
that the people know absolutely nothing of repent- 
ance, of living faith, and the great fact of the new 
birth. It is a great field for missionary labor. 

There is as yet, however, but very little evangeli- 
cal work done here. The American Episcopalians 
have been at work in schools ever since the revolu- 
tion, and have done much to stimulate the educa- 
tional impulse. More recently the American 
Woman's Union Mission have established a school, 
which, on account of its thoroughly evangelical tone, 
has met with a good deal of opposition. The offi- 
cials insist on having the image of the Virgin in the 
school-rooms, and on having the pupils instructed in 
the catechism of the Greek Church, and by a priest 
of the Church. But the ladies are inflexible on all 
these points. 

The Southern Presbyterians have a Mission in 



532 ATHENS. 

Athens. The Superintendent is the Rev. George 
Leyburn, of Virginia, who has been here only 
about two years. The Mission also employs Dr. 
Kallopothakes, a native Greek. There is a Church 
of not more than twenty members worshiping under 
the shadow of the Acropolis. 

The Rev. Mr. Sekellarios, a Greek and a Baptist, 
labors here also, and has baptized a few persons, but 
has, I believe, no organized Church. So the Rev. 
Mr. Constantine, a native of Athens, a Congrega- 
tionalist, labors regularly, and has a few converts, 
but has not organized a Church. He has published 
a Commentary on the Gospels, of which he is now 
bringing out a second edition. This is the ^^r^^ Com- 
mentary in modern Greek. There is also a good 
deal done in the way of circulating the Scriptures. 
I believe I have now mentioned about all the evan- 
gelical agencies at work in Greece. The Presby- 
terian Mission has an interesting and suggestive his- 
tory, but I have not space to give it. 

Our stay in Athens was prolonged by the illness 
of Mr. Hendrix ; but the excellent Christian people 
of the city, particularly those from America, sur- 
rounded him with such cordial attentions as to give 
his room a cheerful aspect. 

Imagine our gratification in finding two Methodist 
ladies here from Missouri. One, Mrs. Fluhart, is in 
charge of the Woman's Mission School — and her 
sister. Miss Thatcher, is here studying modern 
languages. Mrs. Fluhart is a member of the Church 
at Columbia, and Miss Thatcher at Mexico, Mo. 

We left the Piraeus in a storm of rain ; but as we 
steamed out a gleam of sunshine broke upon the 



ITALY. 533 

Straits of Salamls. Does this presage another epoch 
of splendor for the Greeks, dehvered now again 
from Oriental barbarism ? 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

ITALY. 

___ EAVING Athens, we embarked in the steamer 
I Cariddi, and in about forty hours landed at 
~\, Corfu, the principal town in the Island of Corfu, 
in the upper part of the Ionian Sea. It is an out- 
lying possession of the Kingdom of Greece. There 
is a population of 50,000 in the Island, one-half of 
which is in the city. Our ship lay at anchor here 
long enough for us to see the town, which is well 
built and has a decided air of prosperity, and also to 
take a drive of several miles into the country. The 
scenery is beautiful near the city, and the verdure 
contrasts well with the barren appearance of the 
mountains in the distance. The Queen has a sum- 
mer palace here, with large grounds, through which 
we walked. The soil is very rich, and some of the 
views, including the bay and the Mountains of Alba- 
nia, were very fine. 

In the city we visited the palace of the King, 



534 ITALY. 

which is not very royally furnished. His Majesty 
usually spends a few weeks in midsummer here. 

At four o'clock we weighed anchor and steamed 
down the narrow channel which separates the Island 
of Corfu from Albania, and found that we had re- 
ceived a large accession to our list of passengers, 
among whom was an Italian comedy troupe. They 
were a motley, jolly set of men, women and children 
— sprightly, good humored, noisy, and addicted to 
card-playing. The women were forward, and the 
children rude. They made things lively on the 
promenade deck. 

Among our passengers was a correspondent of the 
London Times, who had incurred the displeasure of 
the Sublime Porte by the too great candor of his 
letters from Constantinople on the subject of the 
Turkish atrocities. He had found it necessary to 
leave the country. We had also an English million- 
aire, who had been on a bootless errand to Constan- 
tinople. English capitalists hold Turkish bonds to 
the amount of near ;^ 1,000,000,000, on which they 
have received no interest for more than three years, 
and the war makes it likely that they will lose the 
whole amount, principal and interest. These capi- 
talists form the nucleus of the anti-Russian party in 
England. One other passenger attracted our atten- 
tion, not by his merit, but by his officiousness. He 
was an American — a strolling gambler, I imagine. 
He volunteered to inform us that he had been trav- 
eling for many years, had no object in life beyond 
his dinner, could see nothing to live for, and was 
unhappy — unhappy. When I suggested that the 



ITALY. 535 

catechism gives a noble end of life, he began to 
swear, and I cast no more pearls before him. 

We were delayed by a fog several hours, so that 
we did not land at Brindisi until noon the next day. 
This is the old Brindusium, and was the southern 
terminus of the Appian Way. The harbor is small 
but very deep, and we landed at the wharf. Getting 
our baggage through the Custom House without 
difficulty, we were soon off" by rail for Naples. At 
last we were in Italy — beautiful Italy. 

Until night-fall we were in a very fertile region, 
and I was happily disappointed by the appearance 
of good farming, industry and thrift among the 
people. 

For the first time since we sailed from San Fran- 
cisco we were in the midst of rural life. Why do 
the farmers in Asia all live in villages? Is it for 
protection ? If so, is it not Christianity that renders 
life more secure in Europe and America? Unques- 
tionably the Christian civilization is of a higher order 
•than any other in the world. Even in those regions 
where the Church is most corrupt this is apparent. 

In the night we crossed the mountains between 
Foggia and Naples, and were at the village of 
Caserta early in the morning. Here is an old palace 
of the Kings of Naples. The grounds and avenues 
are still very fine. From this point to Naples the 
road passes through a most charming region. It is 
perfectly level and the soil is as rich as the best bot- 
tom lands of America. Rows of Lombardy Poplar 
stand in the cultivated fields, covered with grape- 
vines which are trained across from tree to tree at a 



536 ITALY. 

height often or fifteen feet. The wheat, oats, hemp, 
flax, corn and other crops are luxurious. 

As we approached the city, Mount Vesuvius came 
into full view, with its great volume of smoke rising 
slowly and bending off southward before a gentle 
wind. It was the first active volcano I had ever 
seen, and I confess to a feeling of awe in the 
presence of it. 

At Naples we visited some few churches, the 
museum and the public cemetery. This cemetery 
is a square yard surrounded by a high wall, and 
paved with dressed stone. Under the pavement 
there are three hundred and sixty-five pits. One is 
opened every day and the dead of the last twenty- 
four hours are dropped into it. It is then closed by 
replacing the stone and filling the cracks around it 
with cement, so as to make it air-tight. With the 
bodies a quantity of fresh lime is thrown in. We 
saw two bodies in the receptacles prepared for them, 
awaiting their turn. 

But the great object in visiting Naples is to see 
Pompeii, some eight or ten miles from the city. 

The houses are not generally in so perfect a state 
as I had supposed, but still it is v/onderful. Some 
of the walls and columns are well preserved, and all 
of the pavements are perfect. Even the fresco on 
the walls, in some instances, is quite distinct. Only 
a little imagination is requisite to enable you to see 
just how the people lived so many centuries ago. 
You see the dwelling houses, with parlor, dining- 
room, bed-room, servants* rooms and kitchen. 
Some of these were very elegant. They had water 
works and hydrants. Some of the lead water pipes 



ITALY. 



S37 



are still in place. We saw the old jars still standing 
in the wine shops, as well as a baker's shop where 
loaves of bread were found in the large brick oven, 
with the stable where the skeleton of the baker's 




RUINS OF POMPEII. 



horse was found. We also visited the house of a 
great wine merchant, with immense cellars, a hun- 
dred yards long, I should think, in one of which the 
bodies of several women were found, probably the 
wife and daughters who had fled to the cellar in 
their fright. 



S38 



ITALY. 



In a museum we saw many things exhumed in the 
excavations. Two of the petrified bodies are well 
represented in the accompanying cut. Many cook- 




PETRIFIED BODIES IN POMPEII. 



ing utensils, some eggs and a great variety of arti- 
cles, are preserved in the Museum. We saw, also, a 
dog well preserved and in an attitude expressive of 
the sudden and dreadful death that overtook him. 

This city was destroyed in A. D. 79, by a shower 
of loose stones, ashes and mud ejected by Mount 
Vesuvius. The dreadful volcanic storm raged for 
more than a week, and the city was completely 
covered to such a depth as concealed it entirely. 
About the middle of the last century the excavations 
were commenced which have been prosecuted from 
time to time until the greater part of the city has 



ITALY. 539 

been brought to light. Among other things there 
are evidences of a degraded moral and social life 
too gross to be described. 

The ascent of Mount Vesuvius is difficult, the 
cone being very steep and covered with volcanic 
ashes, into which the feet sink deep at every step. A 
practicable path, however, has been found. Reach- 
ing the edge of the yawning crater I caught at once 
the fumes of the sulphureous gases which are perpet- 
ually ascending. A man appeared with a basket of 
eggs and proposed to roast me some in the hot 
ashes. It required but a few minutes. My guide 
put a piece of a newspaper on the end of a stick and 
thrust it a few feet into a fissure in the rock, when it 
took fire and burned up in the blaze. I could see 
but a little way down into the crater for the smoke, 
but the roar of the fire waves was like the sound of 
the waves of the sea breaking upon the shore. It 
was subUme ! 

On Sunday there was a military parade in honor 
of the Anniversary of the Constitution. Work on 
the streets went on the same as on other days. I 
attended service at the Wesleyan Chapel, and heard 
a sermon in English by the Rev. Mr. Jones, the 
Superintendent of Wesleyan Missions, in Southern 
Italy. He has a good many schools, several native 
preachers at work ; has preaching stations in sixteen 
towns and cities, with four hundred and seventy 
church members, and one hundred and sixteen on 
probation. The priests do all that is in their power 
to oppose the work, and the converts generally 
become outcasts among their friends. Many who are 
convinced of the truth refuse to make an open con- 



540 ITALY. 

fession on account of the opprobrium that would fol- 
low. They believe secretly but are in fear of the 
Pharisees. 

Among the converts much has to be done in the 
way of instruction, they are so entirely ignorant of 
the scriptures. All they know is about Masses and 
Mary, confession and absolution, Lent and Easter, 
and Saints* days, and so forth. They need the gospel 
here almost as much as the heathen. The people 
who have been exclusively under the tuition of the 
Church of Rome know nothing of the " Truth as it is 
in Jesus." 

From Naples to Rome is only half a day by rail. 
The country is very pretty, but not so productive as 
you get on toward Rome. The towns have an older 
look — in fact many of them appear rather dilapi- 
dated. 

For an hour or more after I left Naples I had 
Vesuvius and its smoke in full sight. I could not 
look without emotion upon this cyclopean smoke- 
stack — this vent for subterranean fires that have 
been burning ever since the world was made — fires 
that come from sources no one knows how deep. 

Approaching Rome I looked out and saw a great 
dome standing out against the sky by itself. There 
could be no mistake, it was the dome of St. Peters. 
We had emerged from the mountains and were in 
the Campagna. Those old arches on the left are the 
remains of aqueducts by which water was conducted 
from the mountains to Imperial Rome. They are of 
brick and it is wonderful how much of them remains, 
and how perfect they are, in places. 



ITALY. 541 

We had delightful quarters at Rome in the Cos- 
tanze, one of the most elegant Hotels in Europe. 

The iirst place we visited was the Catacombs. 
They are narrow, subterranean avenues cut in tufa, 
which is a soft volcanic rock that underlies much of 
the country hereabouts. In the walls of the avenues 
are niches cut for the bodies of the dead. Each 
niche is just large enough for one body." These cata- 
combs are very extensive, the avenues crossing each 
other at different angles. I doubt jnuch if they were 
ever used as a retreat for the living, as some say, 
though they might have served as a place of terripo- 
rary concealment in times of great persecution. 

The slabs that closed the niches in which the dead 
lay in the catacombs, had very brief inscriptions on 
them, with some simple figure, as a bird or fish, very 
rudely carved. At a later day the more wealthy 
were deposited in sarcophagi, which were covered 
with elaborate carvings, representing subjects taken 
from the Bible. A great deal of this early Christian 
sculpture is to be found in a museum connected with 
the Church of St. John Lateran. 

In all the cities of Italy there are museums and 
art galleries, containing countless specimens of art, 
both in painting and sculpture, both ancient and 
modern. I was greatly interested in ancient sculp- 
ture. Much of it represents mythological subjects, 
but there are a great many statues which are like- 
nesses of the persons they represent. Thus from 
remote ages there have been preserved to us the 
likenesses of emperors, philosophers, poets, and 
orators. There are Cicero, Terrentius, Homer, Plato, 
Cato, the two Brutuses, Cato the censor, and a 



542 ITALY. 

multitude more. By the way, I think Cato the 
censor is the Grossest looking man I ever saw. But 
Socrates really amused me. You ought to see his 
nose! especially the lower end of it. It flares out 
and turns up, and is in what I should call the exag- 
gerated pug style. There are several busts of him, 
and they are all much alike, being, no doubt, excel- 
lent likenesses. 

There are several statues of Julius and Augustus 
Caesar, correct likenesses, I imagine. Titus, Vespa- 
sian, Nero, Trajan, Adrian, and many Emperors, are 
represented, and the wives and daughters of several. 
Several of these marble likenesses of women show 
remarkably fine faces, intellectual and beautiful. I 
was quite struck with the various ways they had of 
dressing their hair. Some had it heaped up in a 
mass of curls on the top of their heads, for all the 
world like some fijiiky women I have known. Some 
had rows of curls running along the side of the head 
from the temples back, some had the hair parted in 
the middle of the head, combed neatly back and 
done up behind, and some had one or two long curls 
hanging down the back of the neck or drawn for- 
ward over the shoulder. One or two had a fringe of 
frizzed hair just over the forehead, the rest being 
smooth. 

Many interesting objects have been brought to 
light by recent excavations, such as palaces, imperial 
baths, and old walls that date back to the time of 
the Repubhc, and even earlier. Of course only frag- 
ments of the old buildings remain. There is one 
building, indeed, in a pretty good state of preserva- 
tion, that has come down from the time of the kings. 



ITALY. 543 

It was built by a lucky man who, from the lowest 
condition, became a king of Rome. He built a 
Temple and dedicated it to the God of Fortune or 
Luck, and, truth to tell, it has been a lucky edifice, 
for it has survived all the structures of its own and 
even of much later times. It has often been re- 
paired, but the old plan remains, and a good deal of 
the old material. 

Near the Forum is the old Mamartine prison, a 
most gloomy place, consisting of two underground 
rooms, one below the other, with massive stone walls, 
very damp and dark. The lower one must have 
been always underground. They have a tradition 
that Peter and Paul were confined here. My own 
conviction is that Peter was never at Rome. Paul, 
during his first imprisonment, occupied his own hired 
house. Of his second imprisonment we have no ac- 
count in Scripture, but it is certain that he was con- 
demned and executed at that time, and it is therefore 
not unlikely that he suffered imprisonment in this 
repulsive dungeon. 

The custode showed us the column the apostles 
were bound to, and an indentation made in the 
solid rock by Peter's head as he ascended fiom the 
lower to the upper apartment! 

The old Forum has been laid bare by recent 
excavations, in a low, flat piece of ground between 
the Palatine and Capitoline hills. Here were the 
popular assemblages of the citizens. Here Cicero 
used to thunder out his grand orations. Here Julius 
Caesar fell, and here his body was exposed to the 
public view with its ghastly wounds and in its bloody 
mantle, and here the funeral oration was delivered 



544 ITALY. 

over it by Mark Antony, which so excited the 
populace that they gave it instant cremation in the 
very Forum — an honor accorded to none other. 
The Via Sacra passed through the Forum. Some 
pavements and fragments of Temples remain here. 
The site of the Rostrum is pointed out, and some 
old statuary remains i7z situ. Like the Pnyx and 
Areopagus at Athens, the Forum was in the open 
air. 

St. Peter's is grand, yet I was disappointed in it. 
In the interior the effect is destroyed by the number 
of massive columns, and no good outside view can 
be had for the buildings which surround it, except in 
front. The dome is grand, and the circular colon- 
nade and fountains in front are much admired. 

The Vatican is an oblong square of corridors sur- 
rounding an open court At one corner of it is the 
Cistine chapel, famous for the frescoes of Michael 
Angelo, one of which, covering an entire end wall, is 
the Last Judgment, considered a wonder of art. 
But it is now a good deal faded, and is seen in a 
poor light. The artist had a personal enemy whose 
likeness he painted in this picture in hell, with a 
snake coiled around him. The man applied to 
the Pope to make Angelo erase it. His Holiness 
replied that if he had been put in Purgatory he 
could get him out, but that over the other place he 
had no jurisdiction. Angelo, hearing of this, gave 
the head a pair of donkey's ears, and there it is, 
ears and all, to this day. 

We were in Rome at the time of the Pope's 
Jubilee — the celebration of the fiftieth year of his 
Episcopal life. The presents sent to him from all 



ITALY. 541 

over the world were displayed in the Vatican. Suclt 
an array of finery and gewgaws I never dreamed of! 
Silk and satin things, with brocade work and gold 
fringe, and I do not know what all. I saw two well- 
fed priests eyeing a great stack of wine bottles, 
while their eyes fairly sparkled at the thought of s© 
much good drinking. No wonder that a Pope 
should have the gout if he has to drink all the fine 
wines that are sent to him. 

There is a flight of stone steps in a church her^ 
said to have been brought from Jerusalem, and to be 
the sa.me that was in Pilate's Judgment Hall. It h 
considered a work of great merit to ascend them on 
one's knees. I went to see it, not from any faith m 
the tradition, but because it was on these steps, as 
Luther was on his knees, that that text which in his 
mind became the germ of the Reformation, was 
thundered upon his ears, " The just shall live by 
faith." 

Our stay in Rome was full of sight-seeing, but of 
the Tiber, of the Seven Hills, of all the churches 
and monasteries, and the many things, old and new, 
that I sav\^, I can say but little. When I was wan- 
dering about among the ruins of the palaces on the 
Palatine Hill, and thought how the world was once 
ruled from this point, and how the wealth of the 
v/orld was once concentrated here, and yet how all 
had passed away, I felt more deeply than ever 
before how chaffy is all the glory of this world. A 
short ride on. the Appian Way brought us into the 
vicinity of some remarkable old tombs, the most 
remarkable one, like the Taj at Agra, was erected 
to his wife by a bereaved husband. But the most 

18 



546 ITALY. 

imposing of all ruins at Rome is the Coliseum, which 
has been so frequently described that I will not 
attempt it. There are also some triumphal arches 
that are quite imposing. That of Titus still bears the 
figures in relief which represent the captives 
brought from Judea by the conqueror. 

We called on Dr. Vernon, of the M. E. Church, 
before we left. He has a neat house of worship in 
the heart of the city, and the Wesleyans have 
recently finished quite a large one. The progress of 
the work of God is slow here, but there is progress. 
Evangelical congregations are small everywhere, and 
great patience and perseverance will be required to 
insure success. 

From Rome we went to Florence. This was the 
native city of Michael Angelo — painter, sculptor, 
architect. In all these arts he was the great master 
of modern times, nor was he contemptible as a poet. 
What a many-sided man ! He also took an active 
interest in public affairs, and v/as the most influential 
man of his day. 

Italy is full of art, and Florence is the heart of it 
in this respect. Foreign artists come here to perfect 
themselves, and live and die here. Here is Powers' 
studio, and his sons still keep his name fresh among 
artists. Here we expected to see Hart, renowned 
even in Italy, whose name is dear to many people in 
the Mississippi Valley. Sending in our card at his 
studio, we were admitted by a polite attendant who 
showed us some of his most remarkable pieces. We 
gave him to understand that we desired to see Mr. 
Hart himself A cloud came upon his countenance, 



ITALY. 547 

and he answered us with a single word, ''Morf — hi 
is dead. 

There are a good many elegant churches here, 
but the most unique of all the works of art I have 
seen are the bronze doors of the Baptista. Mr, 
Ruskin had photographs of them made — so I was 
told. Of one of them Michael Angelo said it was 
beautiful enough to be the gate of Paradise. 

I have spent a good deal of time in various art 
galleries in Italy, and have enjoyed it more than I 
expected. I do not understand art sufficiently t@ 
write about it, nor even to account to myself ver^ 
intelligently for the interest I feel in it, but certainl}?" 
some pieces that have come down from classical 
times, as well as the creations of the most distin- 
guished men of a later day, do attract me wonder- 
fully. But I cannot reconcile myself to the evident 
want of modesty in many of the most celebrated 
works. Many statues of Venus and Apollo are 
objectionable on moral grounds, and this is especially 
true of those which have the greatest merit as works 
of art. 

One of the grandest things in Italy is a " Moses,'* 
by Michael Angelo. It is in the church of St. 
Pedro, in Vincoli. It is in a sitting posture, the 
body a little drooped, as you have seen a man in 
deep reverie, the face full of expression, the very eye 
looking as if it were alive, though it is mere cold 
stone, and the whole aspect such as you might well 
imagine the old law-giver to be in just after he had 
received the two tables of the law. These tables he 
has, and the right arm is resting upon them. As in 



54^ ITALY. 

the Mediaeval representations of Moses there are 
short horns on his head. 

Many of the most celebrated paintings in Italy are 
frescoes, as the Last Judgment, already mentioned, 
the Transfiguration, by Raphael, and the Last Supper 
at Milan. These all have a world-wide celebrity, 
and have been reproduced in innumerable copies. 

There are many pieces by Michael Angelo unfin- 
ished, though he died at an advanced age. Unfin- 
ished ! Does any man accomplish all his expecta- 
tions? Does not every one die in the midst of 
unrealized ideals ? 

There is a Museum at Florence that is devoted to 
scientific subjects, in which there is by far the most 
extensive collection of specimens I ever saw — quad- 
rupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles, insects, worms, bugs — 
every thing imaginable. There were some species 
and many varieties entirely new to me. The variety 
of anatomical subjects illustrated in wax, represent- 
ing both normal and abnormal conditions of the 
various organs of the human body, is surprising, as 
is also the artistic perfection of the work. 

But one small room in this Museum interested us 
more than all the rest — a room devoted to the mem- 
ory of Galileo, who was a native of Florence. It 
contains a portrait of him when, a lad of eighteen 
years, being in the Cathedral of Pisa, he playfully 
swung the massive chandelier which was suspended 
from the ceiling, and watching its vibrations, took 
the suggestion of the law which governs the motions 
of the pendulum. From this discovery he went on 
until he demonstrated those great cosmical laws 
which appear in the movements of the heavenly 



ITALY. 549 

bodies, aad that the earth does move in spite of the 
Jesuits and the Inquisition. Then there are portraits 
of him at various stages of his career, besides some 
symbohcal frescoes on the walls. I wished that 
President Wills and Prof. Pritchett had been in my 
place to examine the old scientific apparatus of the 
great astronomer, which they would have understood, 
but I did not. 

Florence takes a great pride in honoring thus the 
greatest of her scientific names. How gladly would 
the Roman Curia blot out that mfallible proceeding 
of theirs against Galileo and the Universe. By the 
way, they have the grace to keep the room at Rome 
which has the frescoes of the St. Bartholomew- mas- 
sacres, locked against the public, though a few years 
ago they were proud to display it. 

On my birth-day we ran down, to Pisa, only two 
hours by rail from Florence, down the beautiful 
valley of the Arno, where we saw the celebrated 
Campo Santo, a cemetery made in earth transported 
from Palestine in the Middle Ages, the Cathedral 
where Galileo's lamp still hangs, the Baptista, which 
is as remarkable as the Taj Mahal for its echo, and 
several other objects of interest. I celebrated the 
fifty-fourth anniversary of my birth by climbing the 
celebrated Leaning Tower. From the summit of 
this wonderful campanile we had a fine view of the 
surrounding plain and the distant mountains, and 
got a glimpse of the Mediterranean. 
. We returned to Florence by night-fall and the fol- 
lowing morning started by rail for Venice, crossing 
the Appennine Range on the way. Tunnels are as 
plentiful as on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 



550 ITALY. 

between Parkersburg and Grafton, Entering the 
great valley of the Po, we approached the city of 
Bologna, where we laid over for a few hours. In a 
great part of the city the upper stories of the houses 
project over the sidewalks, completely shading them 
— a great relief on this hot day. We visited the 
Campo Santo, which is unique and in the style of 
that at Pisa, but much more elegant and extensive. 

The art gallery here contains the celebrated paint- 
ing of the Crucifixion, by Guido. He had a man 
tied to a cross to serve as a model. When the 
picture was near completion he was not satisfied with 
the expression of agony in the face, whereupon he 
seized a dagger, stabbed his model to the heart, 
transferred the dying expression of his victim to the 
canvas, and then, visited by remorse, or fear of the 
gallows, locked his studio and fled the country. 
After a time he was pardoned and permitted to 
return, and men excuse the artist because he was in 
a frenzy. I admire these great artists, prodigiously, 
but they must excuse me from believing in any such 
frenzy as an excuse for crime. Some of them are 
flattered for their genius till they get beside them- 
selves with vanity, and are petted till they are no 
better than spoiled children. A good spanking 
would mend their manners. Most of them, I am 
glad to believe, however, are very sensible, well 
balanced men. 

The lower valley of the Po through which we 
passed is perfectly level, and as fruitful as the val- 
ley land near Naples, with the same exuberance of 
cereals and hemp, the fields having rows of small 
trees running through them and festoons of grape- 



ITALY. 551 

vines swinging from one to another. Passing Fer- 
rara, we crossed tlie Po, the great river of Italy, its 
valley having the Alps on the north and the Appen- 
nines on the south. It empties its waters into the 
Adriatic some miles south of Venice. Ages ago 
levees were thrown up on both sides of it to protect 
the wide valley from overflow. The bed of the river 
has since been elevated by a deposit of sediment 
until it is said that now the bottom of the river is 
above some inhabited portions of the valley. In 
this state of things an overflow must produce the 
most wide-spread ruin. Nor is such an event with- 
out precedent. 

Before reaching Padua we came upon a spur of 
the Alps jutting far down into the valley, and before 
we reached Venice, which was near midnight, we 
found ourselves in the midst of the first good, honest 
thunderstorm we had witnessed since we left home. 
Reaching the depot on the bank of the great canal, 
we made a rush in the midst of a crowd of passen- 
gers, for a gondola, found one and got into it and 
under cover in a minute cabin, in which two consti- 
tuted a crowd, and which was so low that our heads 
touched the roof when we were seated. We were in 
a hurry, but our gondolier was not. To our urgency 
he only replied, " fulmine," and trotted off, we knew 
not where. Fulmine — ah ! yes, true enough ; all the 
heavens seemed in a rage, and he must get a man to 
help him with his little boat in such a tempest. 

At last we were off, at the outset along a wide 
canal, then in a very narrow and tortuous one, shoot- 
ing along under low bridges, and then coming into a 
wide one again, when we were soon landed on the 



552 ITALY. 

steps of our hotel and nearly on a level with the 
floor. 

The grand canal bisects the city, and on each 
side numerous small canals take the place of streets, 
but it is not to be inferred from this that there are 
710 streets. In fact, there are a good many, but they 
are narrow, designed only for pedestrians. Boats 
take the place of carriages, drays and wagons. I 
did not see a horse in the city, to every part of 
which the canals penetrate. 

The model of the gondola is graceful, but it is 
painted black, and is nothing like so large or beaoi- 
tiful as I had supposed. The "gay gondolier" fell 
quite below my standard. In fact he is just an 
ordinary mortal, much like a hack driver, and makes 
his living by his little boat. How much poetry I 
have been cured of since I reached this city — the 
Queen of the Adriatic. H. was dreadfully disap- 
pointed because the gondoliers were not singing all 
the time. He had even more poetry than I to be 
despoiled of. But it is an interesting thing to see 
houses rising from the water's edge, and to be riding 
about everywhere in boats. 

From the summit of the Campanile we had a fine 
view of the whole city and its surroundings. Of the 
churches and the bronze horses and winged lions 
I need not write. The arsenal contains a large col- 
lection of antique weapons, such as swords, maces, 
spears, battle axes and rude fire-arms. I was sur- 
prised to find breech-loading revolvers of the six- 
teenth century, that were fired by match-locks. We 
saw there several complete suits of mail, and — would 
you believe it? — the helmet of Attila. But I cannot 



ITALY. 553 

enumerate. However, I must not omit to mention 
the collar, the thumb-screw, and many other horrible 
instruments of torture invented by the devil and 
appropriated by the inquisition. 

In a private palace which is open to visitors at 
certain times, we saw the last and greatest work of 
Canova; his Hector and Ajax. I gazed at them 
a long time, more fascinated than I had been by any 
human work. Each answers to its ideal in the 
attitude, the face, the form of the limbs, the set of 
the head and in the expression of every muscle from 
head to foot. I doubt if Phidias ever did any thing 
better. In the same palace are profile busts in 
relief of Canova and Titian. In a Museum here are 
some of the master-pieces of Titian, particularly 
** The Assumption of the Virgin." It is inagjtificent^ 
but like so many of the pictures in Italy, it is guilty 
of the profanity of attempting to represent Almighty 
God on canvas. We saw also his first piece, paint- 
ed- when he was a boy — Mary's visit to Ehzabeth, a 
beautiful design — and his last, an unfinished painting 
of the entombment of Christ. 

One picture I saw in Venice haunts me still — a 
representation of the " woman that was a sinner 
anointing the feet of Jesus." Luke vii : 36, 38, 
There was the comfortable and self-righteous 
Pharisee, looking on with contempt, a guest avoiding 
contact with the woman, the beautiful face of John, 
the Lord with an expression of mingled majesty and 
compassion, having his hand extended toward the 
woman, and most striking of all, the kneeling figure 
of the conscience-stricken woman, every feature, 
every line of whose face was expressive of peni- 



554 ITALY. 

tentlal agony. The features were not distorted, the 
expression not exaggerated as in many pieces that 
undertake to represent great mental agony, but the 
lines were drawn just as I have seen a few times in 
my Hfe, when a remorseful sense of sin seemed to 
border on despair. The guide books do not men- 
tion this work with any special praise, nor do I know 
the name of the artist, but for me it is a masterpiece. 

Of course we visited the old palaces of the Doges, 
and the prison in which political prisoners, as well 
as criminals, were incarcerated in vaults that were 
utterly dark and without ventilation, and the Bridge 
of Sighs, over which they passed only to die. 

From Venice we went to Milan. It would amuse 
you to see us taking our departure from an Italian 
hotel. Every servant that has had anything to do 
about our room or table, stations himself in our 
way to take an affectionate leave of us. You never 
saw such cordial politeness. The interest taken in 
us is as great as if it had been grounded on the 
friendship of years. Nor can this yearning affection 
be satisfied .with anything less than a gratuity of one 
or two francs. How many are there here to dismiss 
us with touching adieux at a franc each ? Let me 
see, there Is the boot-black, the hall servant, the 
chambermaid, two or three table-waiters, and the 
porter. 

I will put an Italian against the world for polite 
begging. In Venice, wherever we landed In a gon- 
dola, there would be an Idle man or boy to seize the 
edge of the boat, and pretend to hold It for us till 
we got out — a thing there was no occasion In the 
world for — then off comes the hat for a penny. The 



ITALY. 555 

same upon re-entering. At Florence, when we were 
out in a carriage, if we stopped some loafer was at 
hand to open the door and bow for his centime. 
When we returned, another would pretend to brush 
the cushions, and, holding the door, would bow us in 
with a sort of courtly humility, and turn up a 
beseeching face for his copper. Women and girls 
press their flowers upon you at every turn with per- 
sistent importunity. 

The first thing we did at Milan was to ascend the 
tower of the Cathedral, one of the grandest in all 
Europe. The atmosphere was not clear, so we got 
no good distant view. From the walls of this build- 
ing rise a good many small towers, each crowned 
with a marble statue. Many other statues are scat- 
tered around in recesses and wherever a place 
can be found to put one, amounting in all, I believe, 
to three thousand. The roof is so arranged that 
you can walk all over it. 

Milan is in many respects a fine city. In the 
region of the best retail stores, two streets, which 
cross each other, are roofed over with glass, the roof 
springing in the form of an arch from the lofty walls 
of the houses, and taking the form of a dome where 
the streets cross. Ladies shopping are thus pro- 
tected from rains. It is very beautiful. 

Of course we would see the " Last Supper," by 
Leonardo de Vinci, here. It is on the wall of the 
refectory in an old monastery, and is much faded. 
Engravings of it abound in America. It is intended 
to represent the moment after our Lord has an- 
nounced, '' One of you shall betray me." 

On Sunday we visited a Waldensian church. The 



556 ITALY. 

building is small. The worshipers were mostly of 
the poorer classes. The service did not impress me 
so favorably as I had hoped, but as I did not under- 
stand the language, I was, of course, not a com- 
petent critic. 

A two hours' run by rail from Milan, brought us ta 
Como, on Lake Como. The town lies in an amphi- 
theatre of mountains. The lake is long and narrow^ 
with clear water, and bold mountains rising on both 
sides. The lower slopes are cultivated by terracing* 
in some places this extends to the summits. Trees 
abound. The course of the narrow sheet of water 
is tortuous, somiCwhat ; just enough to enhance the 
beauty. Caves, gorges, precipices, appear in the 
mountains, as we shoot along rapidly on our neat 
little steamer, with here and there a mountain stream 
rushing down, and snow-covered ranges showing in 
the distance. Add to this the ever-changing views 
of towns and towers and villas, with the varying 
shades of a day partly cloudy, partly clear, as we 
had it, and you have a scene of beauty that would 
baffle a poet for description. 

At the town of Bellagio we spent an afternoon and 
night. My room fronted the lake. My pen is dis- 
couraged. Everywhere, as I look out, beauty nestles 
in the lap of sublimity — loveliness smiles upon the 
brow of grandeur. A bluish haze invests the distant 
reaches of the landscape like a transparent vail. 
Between me and the distant mountains a great bird 
came sailing into the field of vision and brought back 
a feeling of my childhood ; a strange longing to rise 
in the air and float up and away, away, off into those 
supernal regions in the impossible heights, which, in 



ITALY. 557 

the infinite mystery of their remoteness, mock all 
mortal aspirations. 

The following day we crossed over to Lake 
Lag-una, through a pass in the mountains, had a ride 
on it, and then over to Lake Maggiore. This lake 
we descended to its southern point, landing at 
Arona. We had made the tour of the lake in two 
days from Milan. By taking an early start it may 
be made in one. I give my suffrage to the universal 
verdict as to the grandeur and beauty of this scenery. 
That on Como is considered the best. 

Leaving Arona at midnight, we had a twenty 
hours' ride by diligence, crossing the Alps by the 
great Simplon road. Precipices, gorges, cascades^ 
grandeurs everywhere ! On the summit is a hospice 
for the relief of storm-bound travelers in the winter. 
Even now, 'June 20, heavy snow-banks lie along by 
the side of the road. The air is fresh, and I don my 
overcoat. 

What a piece of engineering this road is ! At one 
place it runs right under an overhanging rock and 
behind a water-fall. It is a monument of the power 
and wisdom of the first Napoleon. 

Passing the summit, w^e looked down upon the 
little city of Brieg, nestled in the valley of the Rhone, 
We had been for some hours in Switzerland. At 
nine o'clock at night we reached Seusse, where we 
slept, and in the morning took rail for Lake Leman, 
At noon we took passage on a beautiful little steamer, 
ran the whole length of the lake and reached Geneva 
before sunset. At the upper end this lake lies in 
the midst of lofty mountams, but as you approach 
Geneva they recede from the water's edge and leave 



1^5 8 ITALY. 

It a wide border of level or undulating ground in 
which villages and villas abound. Toward the upper 
end is the castle of Chillon, standing out in the water 
-r— a good place for a prison, I should say. The class 
of tourists who know all about counts and dukes and 
princes point out many chateaus of famous people 
here. About two miles from the shore, and not far 
from Geneva, is a beautiful one built by Necker, to 
which he retired after he lost his prestige in French 
politics. Here his daughter, Madame de Stael, lived 
at one time. It now belongs to her grandson, 
de Broglie, and it is said he is putting it in repair for 
occupancy — perhaps not sooner than he will need it. 
He seems in a fair way to repeat the role of his great 
ancestor, in some particulars. 

Near the upper end of the lake there is the rarest 
little island, only about twenty feet long, and just 
barely rising above the surface of the water, with 
three trees growing upon it, said to be elms planted 
tiy some lady a hundred years ago. 

There are twenty-two Cantons in the Swiss Con- 
federacy. They have two legislative bodies, answer- 
]|ng to our Senate and House of Representatives. 
The lower House is called the National Council and 
represents the people. The upper House is com- 
posed of forty-four members who represent, not the 
people directly, but the Cantons, as such. The 
chief executive authority is vested in the Federal 
Council, consisting of seven members. Each one of 
these has charge of some one department of public 
affairs — the Treasury, the Army, and so on — while 
together the)^ constitute the supreme executive 
power of the confederacy. They serve for three 



\ ITALY. 559 

years at a time. This constitution was made 
recently, in 1848, I believe. 

Of course I visited the old Cathedral, made famous 
by the ministry of Calvin, and the Academy and 
the Museum of Antiquities, which contains man/ 
portraits and autographs of distinguished men. 
There are the autographs of Necker and de Stael, of 
Mirabeau, La Place, Leibnitz, Fenelon, Bossuet, La^ 
grange, Diderot, Montesquieu, Frederic " le grand,*^' 
Louis XV., Humboldt, Talleyrand, Napoleon L, 
Marat and a great many others. What a mixture '! 
Marat and Fenelon ; could there be a greater con- 
trast? I ought to have named Dugald Stuart and 
Thomas Jefferson. Some specimens are very elegant^ 
some very inelegant. 

The portraits interested me more. There was the 
Admiral Coligny, a noble face, and Luther, much the 
same as in the common engravings. Melancthon's 
countenance is at once noble and amiable, just what 
you would expect. Zwingle — I have seen a face 
just like it somewhere. Erasmus has an exagger- 
ated nose, not Roman in type, but very long, while 
the sharp end turns up somewhat. John Knox looks 
as if he might be ready to fight a battle any day. 
F. M. L. Laville looks for all the world like Bishop 
Early. Sismondi is fat and looks the very imper- 
sonation of good humor. But there is no more strik- 
ing face among them all than that of John Calvin. 
The nose is prominent, but straight and thin and 
sharp, while the forehead, eyes and cheeks seem 
ready to follow where the most adventurous nose 
might choose to lead. 

In the Museum are also many specimens of ancient 



560 ITALY. 

manuscripts, some illuminated and some on papyrus, 
©ae sheet of which is said to be the writing of St. 
Augustine. There is a remarkably fine Bible, too, 
which was to have been presented to Henry IV. of 
France, but he fell away from the Protestant cause 
and the gift was withheld. 

In the Academy is a collection of specimens of 
Natural History even larger than that at Florence. 
The varieties of swine, squirrels and rodents really 
amazed me. But to cap all, they have stuffed speci- 
mens of the rhinoceros, hippopotamus and elephant. 
I cannot imagine how they managed the unwieldy 
Mdes of these monsters, but by some means they 
Mve done it admirably. 

On leaving Geneva we went to Interlaken, stop- 
ping a while at Berne on the way. On the way we 
saw a good deal of Swiss rural life, the characteristic 
cottages, the neat farming reminding us' of Japan; 
"women at work in the fields, and chubby, fat-faced 
children waddling around in old-fashioned home- 
spun. Berne is the capital of the Confederacy. The 
public buildings are not very remarkable. What in- 
terested me most was the fossils in the Museum. 
For the first time I saw the Ichthyosaurus. It is 
just what the name imports, a mixture of lizard and 
fish. 

Between two lakes, Thun and Brienz, lies the 
town of Interlaken. There we spent a rainy Sunday 
and heard two capital sermons by a Scotch minister 
©f the Free Church, which keeps a pastor during the 
tourist season. 

Monday we went out to Grindenwald to see a 
great glacier lying in a gorge near the town. This 



\ 



ITALY. 561 



glacier was once much more extensive than it is 
now, as the worn and striated rocks about the lower 
end of it show. An artificial grotto has been made 
in it, which we entered, and were interested to see 
the effect of the light shining through such a mass 
of ice. 

Portions of the glacier are clear, solid ice. Here 
and there is a deep indentation made by streams of 
water formed upon the thawing surface. In places 
where the slow, onward movement carries it over 
uneven surfaces, it becomes broken into fissures. 
Near the foot the mass must be a hundred feet in 
depth, possibly much more. What it is in the deep 
gorges above, it is impossible to guess. 

We heard a pistol shot, and the Alpine horn, the 
echoes of which, among the mountains, are very 
fine. 

We returned to Interlaken in time to take the 
boat for Geissback on Lake Brienz. Here is a fine 
hotel. The object of interest is a water- fall that 
comes down a mountain-side in several successive 
leaps. It is illuminated at night. Light of varying 
colors is thrown in behind the water, first white, then 
blue, then yellow, then blood-red, and then it is sud- 
denly extinguished, leaving a darkness that is posi- 
itively black. It is a spectacle that would repay a 
voyage across the ocean. 

Morning comes, we cross to Brienz, take dili- 
gence for the Lake of Lucerne, on which we steam 
down to the city of the same name, which we reach 
in time for the steamer to Rigi landing. On the 
summit of the Rigi are two hotels. You have here 
a remarkable view of the whole range of the Swiss 



562 ITALY. 

Alps, including the Bernese Oberland. The ascent 
to the summit is made by rail, by a grade which is 
in some places twenty-five per cent. — five feet in 
every twenty. A frightful chasm is crossed on the 
slenderest of iron bridges. The train climbs along 
the edge of precipices, and at first you expect to 
have your neck broken. 

We slept in the Rigi Hotel, and following the 
fashion of tourists, answered the call of the Alpine 
horn at daybreak, got out of a warm bed, and went 
out to shiver in the chill mountain air and see the 
sun rise and flood the snow-covered masses with his 
first beams. There was a crowd of people out, all 
solemnly impressed with the duty of the hour, which 
was to be enthusiastic. Many had their red-backed 
guide-books in hand, doing their best to make out 
which was " Pilatus," which was the " Matterhorn/* 
the "Wetterhorn" and other famous peaks, "too 
numerous to mention." Meantime every one was 
shivering. It was an effort to get up enthusiasm 
''under difficulties." Now and then you would hear 
a vigorous exclamation, but it sounded as if it was 
premeditated. People, you know, must show how 
susceptible of the sublime they are. I would have 
given a dollar for a blazing fire to go to. After all, 
the sun rose under a cloud. 

The next night found us in Germany at Strasburg. 
We had an hour at Basle, on the way. Basle is, 
perhaps, the wealthiest city in Switzerland. There 
we had our first view of the Rhine, and visited the 
famous old Minster. 

The object of especial interest at Strasburg is the 
great Cathedral, which was several centuries in 



ITALY. 563 

building, and is said to show in different parts the 
birth, the culmination and finally the degeneration of 
the Romanesque style of architecture. 

On our way to Frankfort we made a detour in 
order to see the city of Baden Baden. The gambling 
IS stopped here by law, at last. But the waters — 
warm springs — are very celebrated, and the place is 
still much resorted to. It is as famous as Switzer- 
land for fine hotels, inasmuch as, like Switzerland, it 
makes all its money from travelers. The ** Conver- 
sation House," v/here the gambling was carried on, 
is magnificently fitted up, and is now used for lec- 
tures, reading rooms, and such like purposes. The 
place is said to be visited by forty or fifty thousand 
persons a year. 

At Heidelberg we stopped mainly to see the old 
castle, which is said to be the most remarkable one 
in Germany, though it was nothing like so large as 
that at Banias. It was, however, much more elegant, 
being not only a fortification, but also the palace of 
the Electors of the Palatinate of the Rhine. 

We were shown through the castle by a very sen- 
sible young woman, who spoke English well, and 
explained to us the uses of the various parts of the 
building. The great Heidelberg Tun is here. The 
Neckar, a tributary of the Rhine, flows by the city 
and close below the castle. 

We had but three hours for Frankfort on the 
Main, the old residence of the Rothschild family, 
and the birth-place of Goethe. The people are 
proud to point out the quaint old house in which the 
Baron Rothschild was born. On the principal 
streets are statues of Goethe and Schiller. 



564 ITALY. 

From Frankfort we came on to Mayence — Mainz, 
the Germans call it. You must know that the 
English form of several names in Germany and Italy 
differs from that used by the people of those coun- 
tries. You will never hear of Florence, for instance, 
in Italy. It is Frienzi. Vienna, in Austria, is Wien. 
Venice is Venezia. 

Mayence is on the left bank of the Rhine, and 
dates from the time of Augustus Caesar, who occu- 
pied the place by his General, Drusus, as a fortified 
camp. From this place we expect to take a ride on 
the Rhine, by boat, as far as Cologne — Koln, they 
call it. 

I am struck with the absence of what I expected 
to see in Germany — that is wooden shoes and such. 
The people, rich and poor, dress just as in American 
cities. No doubt in the interior the wooden shoe 
still abounds in some parts, but in the cites we have 
visited it is rarely seen. The laboring people are 
dressed as well as among us, if not better. The 
dressy women even walk exactly as in American 
cities, with the same swing, and holding up the back 
part of their skirts, in the same lovely w^ay. 

But Germany is becoming modernized, and so is 
every place where the railroad goes. I wish I 
could find a place outside of heathendom where the 
charming simplicity of the past might be immortal. 
Just think of a train of cars puffing away between 
Athens and the Pireus, passing by the Hill of the 
Nymphs and the Pnyx and rolhng the black volume 
of its smoke against the base of the Acropolis ! The 
moment it is done the Greek girls get into tight- 



CONCLUSION. 565 

walsted dresses, and wriggle along the streets in pull- 
backs, holding up their skirts behind. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

CONCLUSION. 

¥HAT part of the Rhine which is so much 
spoken of for its beauty lies between Mayence 
and Cologne. Above Mayence to the Alps, 
and below Cologne to the sea, it passes through a 
level region. A short distance below Mayence the 
hills close in upon it. For a considerable distance 
they are very bold, and rise from the water's edge. 
In many places the steep slopes are terraced and set 
with vineyards, just as I had supposed, only the 
vines are more stumpy than I had imagined, and for 
that reason less beautiful. Yet they are very pretty, 
especially as every turn in the tortuous course of 
the river reveals new angles of the slopes with the 
horizon, and with each other and the river. In the 
swift movement of the boat the scene is shifted so 
rapidly as to seem almost like a picture of the 
imagination. As in the kaleidoscope, you see new 
combinations so rapidly as to be almost startled by 
the pleasure of a surprise. 



$66 CONCLUSION. 

The old castles on the hills that skirt the river are 
more numerous and better preserved than I expected 
to see, and constitute a notable feature of the 
scenery. But they are for the most part smaller 
than I had supposed. But this is compensated in 
part by the prominent and picturesque situations 
they occupy. One I observed standing on a rock 
projecting out from the face of the hill towards the 
river, so narrow and so high that it seems incredible 
that any one should have thought to build on it. 
But the more inaccessible the better in those old 
feudal times. One of them has been recently put 
in repair by the Emperor, and is sometimes occupied, 
I understand, as a summer residence, by the Crown 
Prince. 

The principal cities along this part of the river are 
Bonn and Coblentz, the latter of which has played a 
somewhat conspicuous part in European wars. The 
fortress on the bank opposite the city is so strong 
that it has been compared to Gibraltar. In fact this 
river is fairly lined with defensive works, which are 
kept in perfect repair. This is owing, I suppose, to 
the fact that it lies so near the frontier. 

We also passed " Bingen, sweet Bingen on the 
Rhine." The scenery around it is very fine. To 
a soldier who was born there, whose kindred we're 
there, and his sweetheart besides, when he was 
"dying on a distant battlefield, it would seem a very 
paradise. I plead guilty to a special interest in 
Bingen. I used to think, when a boy, that that 
Bingen girl ought to have died when she got the 
message of her dying lover — but ten chances to one 
she was already engaged to another — probably some 



CONCLUSION. 567 

beer-bloated clod-hopper in wooden shoes. Don't 
you think so ? But the case does not trouble me as 
much now as it did then. 

We spent a Sunday at Cologne, where I saw 
the name of the city spelt three different ways — 
Koln, Coin and Coeln. All the world knows about 
the Eau de Cologne which is manufactured here in 
incredible quantities, and gets into foreign markets, 
probably, in still greater quantities. Coleridge has 
given this city a wide notoriety for its filth and vile 
odors, but either the poet has done the place an in- 
justice or it has improved greatly since his day. 
There is also a great Cathedral here, somewhat in 
the style of that in Milan, but decidedly inferior 
to it. 

Our next point was Amsterdam, by rail. The 
eastern portion of Holland through which we passed 
is a low region, not perfectly flat, but undulating. It 
is sandy, sterile and uncultivated, but yields some fair 
pasturage. At Utrecht we entered the real low 
country, intersected by canals and ditches in every 
direction, with neat cottages and an abounding cul- 
tivation. 

Amsterdam has long been a leading commercial 
centre, famous for its old-style houses, its great 
bankers and its merchant princes. After all the 
descriptions I had read of it, it was different from any 
preconception. The houses differ from those of an 
American city more in the quaint style of the roof 
than in any other respect, but many of them are now 
wanting in even this peculiarity. 

Long time ago a dam was constructed on the river 
Amstel. Just there a city was built. You see the 



568 CONCLUSION. 

genesis of the name. It is said that in early times 
there was a mining town near a dam on the Yuba 
River. A colporteur once entered the place and 
asked the name of it, first of one and then of 
another, and got the uniform answer, Yuba Dam. 
He was greatly shocked by their profanity. He 
could not ask a simple question but they would 
swear at him. 

The women on the streets, young and old, wear 
caps, white as snow, with ruffled border, just such as 
the old ladies had when I was a boy. There is noth- 
ing in this world in which a pretty woman looks 
sweeter. No frizzed hair, nor pancake bonnet, nor 
flashy ribbons can begin to compare with it. And 
one thing I am disappointed in here is the great 
number of good looking people. I had supposed 
the Dutch were nearly all fat and chuffy, with coarse 
features. Far from it. I have never seen in any city, 
at home or abroad, a better average of beautiful 
women ; beautiful both in face and form ; many, 
even, of the working classes are very pretty. I have 
seen them scrubbing the pavement with their white 
caps on and their clean dresses tucked up in a 
becoming way, presenting a charming picture. 

A good many elderly women wear a piece of head 
gear that is very peculiar. A thin gold plate, 
slightly convex and perfectly polished, is fixed on 
each side of the head ; they are three or four inches 
in diameter, and from the front edge, projecting for- 
Avard, is a spiral gold wire, from the end of which 
several small pieces of jewelry are pendent. It 
looks very odd, and must be an old style, as I saw 
no young women wearing it. 



i 



CONCLUSION. 569 

The ladies here have a contrivance which enables 
them to see what is going on in the street while 
they sit at their sewing or reading in their rooms. 
Two looking-glasses are set outside of the window 
at such angles that one gets the object on the street 
and gives it to the other in which it is seen from 
within. We saw them in all the cities in the Neth- 
erlands, as well as a few in Paris. I noticed them 
on one or two houses in London. 

I am often reminded by signs on business houses 
of the affinity between our language and the Dutch. 
That which I have often seen over carpenters' shops' 
amuses me by its length — Tiimnerinaiinsverkplaatz. 
Four words were used up in making it, after the 
fashion of making compound words, for v/Iiich both 
the German and Dutch languages, are, I believe, 
somewhat remarkable. These four words are all 
closely allied to their equivalents in English. I 
afterwards saw in Brussels, where the French lan- 
guage is much in vogue, city lots placarded for sale 
in these terms, " Terraine a vendere en partie ait en 
bloc!' It at once occurred to me that the words of 
our language which are from the same root as others 
in the Gei'inan or Dutch are always of the old Saxon 
stock, it is words of Latin origin which we have in 
common with the French. 

In Amsterdam we found quarters in the old 
" Bible Hotel," so named from the circumstance that 
it is the house in which the first Bible in the Dutch 
language was printed. A copy of the first edition is 
kept in the house and exhibited to guests if they 
desire to see it. 

At the Hague we saw the very interesting old 



5/0 CONCLUSION. 

Museums and drove out to the Queen's palace, where 
is a likeness of Mr. Motley, who was on terms of 
friendship with her Royal Highness. 

There is not much to interest one at Rotterdam, 
though the Church of St. Lawrence is a very large 
building, several hundred years old. As in many 
other old European churches, the floors are of large 
stone slabs, on each of which is an epitaph of some 
person buried under it. Very often these stones are 
so old as to be deeply worn by human feet, so that 
the epitaphs are well nigh obliterated. A space is 
railed off in this church in which all marriages take 
place. I observed the slabs with epitaphs, so that 
Dutch youth stand on the graves of their ancestors 
when they plight their troth in holy matrimony. 

Passing out of Holland into Belgium, our first 
point was Antwerp. At the boundaries of all these 
little European Governments the traveler has to sub- 
mit to the annoyance of a custom house examination 
of his baggage — that is, all except Switzerland. It 
is the policy of the Swiss to give every encourage- 
ment to travel and every facility to travelers. 

Antwerp — Anvers, they write it — has quite the 
look of a modern city, and is a growing city. An 
artist would enjoy the museum of paintings, all in the 
Flemish style and by native artists; Rubens, Van 
Duyk, Rembrandt, and others. This style is peculiar 
in some respects, especially in the coloring, which is 
very rich. Perhaps Rubens is considered the great- 
est of these artists, and there are several of his mas- 
terpieces here. The crucifixion, the descent from the 
cross, the dead body of the Saviour surrounded by his 
friends, and the entombment, seem to have been his 



CONCLUSION. 571 

favorite subjects. He made a good many paintings 
of Christ on the cross. One very striking one repre- 
sents the spear thrust into the side of our Lord after 
he was dead. Few paintings, even by the great 
ItaHan masters, impressed me more than this. 

Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is called the Paris 
of the Netherlands. It is indeed a fine city and 
very prosperous, but its chief interest is in its vicin- 
ity to a small country village called Waterloo. Of 
course we visited the battle-field. 

With the aid of some reading and an intelligent 
guide I comprehended the ground and the whole 
process of the conflict. What an advantage the 
allied forces had in their position ! It would have 
argued imbecility in Wellington if he had been 
defeated. 

Napoleon was in desperate circumstances and was 
obliged to play a desperate game. The great gam- 
bler in kingdoms staked every thing on his last card 
here — and lost. Alas ! so must all human greatness 
end. No Caesar can be so great but he must perish, 
no imperial pride so lofty but it must come down. 

The Dutch have thrown up a great mound of 
earth here, two or three hundred feet high, and sur- 
mounted it with a colossal figure of a lion. Our 
Belgian guide, who has the common contempt of his 
countrymen for the Dutch, laughed at this Dutch 
lion with his tail between his legs. The British lion, 
he affirmed, always carries his tail up over his back. 

Brussels is situated just at the edge of that large 
scope of level country called the Netherlands. In- 
deed a part of the city lies on the rising ground that 



5/2 CONCLUSION. 

sets in here, and the road out to Waterloo crosses a 
very beautiful and undulating country. 

The battle-field is now covered with wheat and 
rye and other crops. The growth is heavy, and the 
old men say that for twenty years after the battle, in 
the places where the greatest carnage was, the grain 
was very rank. 

We visited the establishment where the Brussels 
point lace is made, and saw the women at work, 
of whom a thousand are employed, but most of them 
do the work at their own homes. After witnessing 
the tedious process I ceased to wonder why this 
elegant work should be so dear. The only wonder 
is that it is so cheap. The poor women work for 
wages that we would starve upon in St. Louis, and 
much of the lace that has adorned the necks of 
princesses has been wrought by weary fingers and 
aching eyes to feed hunger-bitten children. Even 
then, after twelve hours of such steady, taxing work, 
the food that had been earned scarce sufficed for 
the keen edge of the hunger that awaited it. Twelve 
hours is the day's work of these lace-makers. They 
get but little exercise in the open air and most of 
them look pale and wan. 

After one day in Brussels we went on to Paris, 
through a country part of which is beautifully undu- 
lating; but much of it is quite level. It is a region 
of great fertiHty and for the most part under a high 
state of cultivation. 

I am surprised to find it so cool here in Paris in 
mid-summer. I felt this morning almost as if a fire 
would be pleasant. But the weather is said to be 
quite unusual. 



CONCLUSION. 573 

I scarcely know how to begin to write about Paris, 
which has been the scene of I know not how many- 
revolutions in less than a hundred years, and which 
has been twice entered by hostile armies within the 
present century, and recently ravaged by the com- 
munists, but in spite of all continues to be the centre 
of fashion for Europe and America, and is the gayest 
city, and one of the most prosperous in the world. 
It has a population of nearly 2,000,000, which is 
almost four times as large as at the beginning of 
this century. It seems to have started into a new 
life after the revolution. 

The river Seine divides the city into two parts, 
that on the north side being the larger. The general 
designation of the streets is Rue, as the Rue St. 
Honore, but many of the larger and finer ones are 
called Boulevards, and some Avenues. Many of the 
Boulevards were made by Napoleon III., through the 
heart of the city, the houses being removed to make . 
way for them. They were projected on a uniform 
plan, and run in straight lines, while the plan of the 
old streets was, properly, no plan at all. 

The most extensive galleries of statuary and 
painting in the world are here. The palace of the 
Louvre is all occupied as a museum of the fine arts. 
Just to go through it you must walk a mile and 
a half. Much of the sculpture is from the classic 
times, having been brought from time to time from 
Italy and Greece. Among the paintings are many 
works of first-rate merit. They are classified, having 
those of a certain school together in one room. 
Thus the English, the Italian, the Dutch, the Ger- 
man, the French, have each a separate apartment, 



574 CONCLUSION. 

and those of one school may be seen and studied 
together. 

In the palace of the Luxembourg there is a gallery 
where the paintings of living French artists are kept. 
Many of them impressed me very unfavorably. 
They betray an imagination at once grotesque and 
prurient. 

The public grounds and monuments of the city 
constitute an important feature of it. I can mention 
only a few. The great palaces rather disappointed 
me at first, but grew upon me the more I contem- 
plated them. The palace of the Tuileries, which 
was destroyed by the communists in the awful con- 
flagration of 1 8/ 1, is still in ruins, though I under- 
stand it is the purpose of the government to restore 
it. It is connected with the Louvre by a wing. 
Near by is the Palace Royal, which, however, was 
never used as a royal residence. The palace of the 
Luxembourg was the property of the Dukes of Lux- 
embourg. 

Connected with the Luxembourg and the Tuileries 
are beautiful gardens, which are, in fact, public parks. 
They are planted with shrubbery, and no expense is 
spared in the improvement and decoration of them.. 
All the public grounds and streets here are kept, as 
you may say, perfectly clean. 

The Champ d' Elysees is an extension westward 
of the Garden of the Tuileries. It is a parallelogram 
planted with, trees and traversed by a broad avenue 
which terminates at the great Triumphal Arch 
erected by Napoleon I. 

One of the most remarkable things about the city 
is the Tomb of Napoleon. It is in the church con- 



CONCLUSION. 575 

nected with the Hotel des Inva-Hdes. You enter the 
church, approach a heavy circular railing, and look- 
ing down you see a circular balustrade with the 
Tomb in the centre of the circle. It is immediately 
under the lofty dome of the building. The sarcoph- 
agus is of the most elegant workmanship and the 
design very elegant. It is made of a stone different 
from any I ever saw, though at a little distance it 
resembles porphyry. The pedestal on which it rests 
is on a floor that is gorgeously decorated, while 
around it are the names of the principal battles of 
the hero. A number of life-size figures in white 
marble, intended to represent angels, surround it. 
Off on one side is an altar covered with a gilt 
canopy, which is supported by four spiral columns 
of a rare species of marble. 

In different parts of the church are other tombs, 
some of them very magnificent, but there is nothing 
in the city, probably nothing in the world, that will 
compare with this. France still idolizes this man. 

Even business houses have an artistic air here. 
The Bourse is massive, solid looking, yet elegant. 
Many banking and mercantile establishments are 
imposing structures. Some retail dry goods estab- 
lishments are a marvel in their line, both for beauty 
and extent. One there is which is said to keep a 
hundred horses of the best blood employed in deliv- 
ering packages, the carriages in use being costly and 
the drivers in livery. The shops — that is, the retail 
stores — look their best at night, with plate glass 
fronts and brilliant lights. The American ladies are 
said to be their best customers. 

There is a church here that is commonly called 



57^ COxNXLUSION. 

the Pantheon. It took that name during the Revolu- 
tion. Atheism had possession of the city, the 
churches were desecrated, ar.d this one Vv'as devoted 
to the memory of the distinguished men of French 
history. It was to contain a monument or an inscrip- 
tion to every m.an who should be considered v^orthy 
of such an honor. Even the church of Notre Dame, 
the great cathedral of the city, was converted into a 
Temple of Reason, an infamous woman being en- 
throned in it as the Goddess of Reason. 

The church of the Madaline has had a similar 
history. The building was begun in the last 
century, the general design being in imitation of 
some old temple with a cella surrounded by a peri- 
style. Napoleon I. found it unfinished, and ordered 
the work to be resumed that it might be dedicated 
to the glory of France. He did not live to see it 
completed. It is now finished, however, and in use 
as a church. The interior is most unique and beau- 
tiful. 

When the commune was defeated in 1871, three 
hundred of the insurgents took refuge in this church, 
and here they were shot. The recent history of no 
other city in Europe has such tragic passages as this. 

An entire chapter might well be devoted to the 
geological, mJneralogical, and zoological museums, 
the museum of comparative anatomy and the "Jar- 
din des Plantes," or botanical garden, which are all 
in one enclosure. 

Immense buildings are in course of construction in 
the Champs de Mars for the approaching exposition. 
The ground to be occupied w^ill, indeed, be much 
larger than the Champs de Mars, extending over a 



COlNlCLUSION. 577 

large space on the opposite side of the Seine, with 
which they will be connected by a magnificent 
bridge. 

What shall I say of our visit to Versailles and the 
palace of palaces there ? that stupendous piece of 
folly in which Louis XIV. laid the foundations of the 
Revolution. Palace and grounds are on a scale of 
magnificence beyond anything I have seen in any 
part of the world. The building is much visited 
for the splendor of it and the fine paintings that are 
in it, and in one wing of it the National Assembly 
holds its sittings. Of the fountains, lawns, forests, 
I cannot speak. 

There are two other palaces at Versailles, the 
Great Trianon and the Petite Trianon. In the 
former are many souvenirs of the first Napoleon, who 
sometimes occupied it. In the stables near by are 
shown the state carriages of the later French Mon- 
archs. One of them, made for the occasion of the 
coronation of the last of the Bourbons, cost 1,020,000 
francs, or $193,800. 

We visited the factory of the Sevres porcelain, the 
property of the government. Of the beauty of this 
ware all the world knows. Some of the best artists 
in the country are employed in its decoration, and 
the masterpieces of the Louvre are copied upon it. 
Still more wonderful is the manufacture of Gobelin 
tapestry. It is all done by hand, and the most 
elaborate designs are wrought into the stuff. It is 
not woven, but done with the fingers. Many years 
are required to finish one piece. This manufacture 
is also in the hands of the government. 

At every turn you are reminded of the Revolution 

19 



578 CONCLUSION. 

of 1789. I mention only two facts. The words 
Liber tie, Egalite, Fraternite, are found inscribed on 
public buildings everywhere, even where you would 
least expect to see them. The other fact is that an 
imposing column stands on the spot once occupied 
by the Bastile, crowned by a colossal gilt statue of 
the Genius of Liberty. This column was erected by 
Louis Philippe in 1 831, but it properly commemo- 
rates the earlier period. 

The figure on the lofty summit is a work of genius 
and seems to me to represent Liberty as well as such 
a thing can be done by art. It is poised on tip-toe 
on the left foot, the right being thrown back and 
elevated, while the wings are spread, and a torch 
borne in the right hand. 

No government does so much to gratify and 
amuse the people as the French. All the galleries 
and museums are open to the public without charge, 
as well as all the public grounds. The annual cost 
of all this must be very great. 

On Sunday we attended service at the American 
Chapel in the morning, and at the Wesleyan in the 
evening. 

We crossed over to England by the way of 
Dieppe and New Haven, reaching the latter place 
after night-fall. The next morning we were off by 
an early train for Brighton, where we spent two or 
three hours riding around town and visiting the 
aquarium. What is this my eyes see in England ? 
A little wheeled vehicle drawn by one man, with a 
lady riding in it. Yes, and there are two or three 
others on the side of the street waiting for custom. 

It is an unmistakable English jinrikisha ! The 



CONCLUSION. 5;79 

construction, however, is quite different from those 
in Japan. 

By about noon we reached London — that great 
city. I had become so accustomed to seeing strange 
places that I had lost all that feeling of curiosity 
touched by a sense of awe which I used to feel on ap- 
proaching a city I had never seen. But London — yes, 
I must confess it — the old feeling revived as we ap- 
proached London. 

It was Saturday. We could do little more than 
go to 2 Castle Street, City Road, get our mail, hear 
the church news, and read our letters. Sunday Dr. 
Punshon is to preach at City Road Chapel, before 
the Lord Mayor. The English have their own way 
of doing things. When a collection is needed for 
some charity, they invite the Lord Mayor of London 
to attend the service. He comes m state, in the fine 
official turn-out, with out-riders, in his official robes, 
bringing the insignia of office. This always brings a 
crowd. 

Sunday morning we found it difficult to get in. 
We had no tickets. When the Lord Mayor goes 
the crowd will be so great that none can be admitted 
without a ticket, otherwise the rabble would crowd in 
and spoil the occasion. By dint of perseverance 
and management, however, we got a message to the 
pastor, who declared he was violating orders, but let 
us in. Soon the expected dignitary entered, in red 
robes, with his attendants, and we had a very well- 
considered and polished sermon — written. 

A volume the size of this might be filled -with the 
account of what we saw in London — even with what 
we saw in the British Museum, to say nothing of all 



580 CONCLUSION. 

the other Museums. Then there is St. Paul's, and 
Westminster Abbey, and Westminster Palace ; the 
House of Commons — which is in Westminster Palace 
— the Zoological Garden, Hyde Park, the Thames 
and all its bridges, the Inns of Court, the under- 
ground railroad, and all the other railroads, and — 
everything. This city is at least twice as large as any 
other in the world. Next to it is Paris. We used to 
hear that China and Japan had the greatest cities. 
This might have been true two or three hundred 
years ago, but it is not so now. Th.Q ^-rowtk of Lon- 
don within about a century would make Paris. It 
would make two Pekins or Cantons, or three 
Tokios. It is twenty miles across it. The popula- 
tion is 4,000,000. 

The commerce of Great Britian has come literally 
to emxbrace the world, and on the great thoroughfares 
you can find no hotel where the English language is 
not spoken. English thought is diffusing itself every- 
where. The Union Jack goes to all places where 
there is water sufficient to float a ship. This world- 
embracing commerce is concentrated at London. 



APPENDIX. 



DEATH OF BISHOP MARVIN. 

ON SUNDAY, November 19, 1877, Bishop Mar- 
vin addressed the members of one of the Sun- 
day-schools in the city of St. Louis, and after- 
ward preached a sermon. In the afternoon of the 
same day he went to Kirkwood, about thirteen miles 
west of the city, and preached a sermon and dedi- 
cated a church. Soon after he was taken with a 
slight chill, but was not seriously incommoded by it. 
He returned home the next morning, and during the 
remainder of that day and a part of the next he de- 
voted himself to the work of finishing the manu- 
scripts of the last chapter of his book. 

He had completed the last chapter, but had not 
copied it, as he usually did, when he was taken with 
another and very severe chill, and was compelled to 
quit work and retire to bed. He never arose again, 
except to enter into the rest prepared for the good 
and faithful servants of the Lord. The disease was 
pleuro-pneumonia, and the skill of the physicians 
could not arrest its fatal progress. 

Although suffering acutely, he continued the 
supervision of the proofs of his book until Friday 
night, when, at the earnest solicitation of the pub- 
lishers and his family, who realized that his condi- 
tion was critical, he abandoned it. The matter was 
then completed to the 300th page. 



$82 APPENDIX. 

On Saturday and until in the afternoon of Sunday 
he seemed to be improving, and suffered compara- 
tively little ; but this was only the beginning of the 
end. 

Sunday evening he began to suffer more pain, but 
the physicians were hopeful and assured the mem- 
bers of his family that they thought his symptoms 
were better. But his sufferings increased, and abcut 
eleven o'clock Dr. Newman, the family physician, 
was called in again. Soon after he entered the room, 
the sufferer addressed him and said, "I think you 
have cause to be alarmed, from the shortness of 
breathing." The symptoms were so much worse 
that other physicians were sent for, and upon their 
arrival a consultation was held. As they were retir- 
ing from the room he spoke to Dr. Newman and 
said, '' Are you going to use prompt mxeans for my 
relief? I can't stand this another night." 

Those were his last words, uttered a few minutes 
before two o'clock. 

The physicians left soon after, intending to return 
at eight in the morning for further consultation. 

Left alone with his family, he became more quiet, 
and they supposed he was sleeping. At half after 
three he drank a little milk which his wife handed 
to him, but did not raise his head from the pillow, 
as he had done previously. At four o'clock they 
attempted to arouse him to give him his medicine, 
and found that he was dying. He could not speak, 
but apparently remained conscious and recognized 
the members of his family until the very last. He 
ceased breathing at fifteen minutes after four o'clock, 
and *' fell asleep " without a struggle or a sigh, sur- 
rounded by his weeping wife and children, no person 
except the members of his family being present. 

His last sickness and death were as remarkable as 
his career through life had been, He had just 



APPENDI3^. 583 

returned from a voyage around the world, during 
which, Hke St. Paul, he had been in perils by the 
sea, in perils in the wilderness, in perils of robbers, 
and in perils by the heathen, to return home and 
die in the midst of his family. 

He had finished his work, and the Master called 
him home. 

"With such thoughts I bowed my head, and 
reined my horse northward on the Damascus road, 
following slowly after my companions, who had gone 
on. I shall never see this city again. Shall I see 
the Jerusalem above? God grant it in infinite 
mercy ! " 

The funeral services were performed in Centenary 
Church, St. Louis, on Thursday morning, November 
29th — Thanksgiving day ! If he had lived he would 
have preached the sermon in that church on that 
day. The coffin was conveyed to the church at an 
early hour in the morning, and hundreds of friends 
from both city and country availed themselves of the 
opportunity to look for the last time upon the be- 
loved features. A constant stream of mourning 
friends filed by the coffin until the commencement of 
the funeral services. The features were as natural 
as in life, and he seemed to be sleeping peacefully. 
Every portion of the church was filled to overflow- 
ing, and many went away because they were unable 
to obtain standing room. A large arm-chair, draped 
in mourning, stood on the rostrum, with the letter 
** M " formed in evergreens, resting on the vacant 
seat. Tears involuntarily suffused hundreds of eyes 
as they rested upon this mute and pathetic reminder 
of the work of death. 

The funeral services opened with Chopin's Funeral 
March on the church organ, by Prof Kunkel, the 
organist. 



584 APPENDIX. 

Rev. J. W. Lewis then gave out the hymn com- 
mencing: 

*' What tliougli the arm of conquering death 
Does God's own house invade?" 

The hymn was sung by the choir and congrega- 
tion. Rev. T. M. Finney next read the nineteenth 
Psalm, after which Rev. Dr. Tudor read the fifteenth 
chapter of First Corinthians. **The Land of 
Beulah," com.mencing, 

*' My latest sun is sinking fast, 
My race is nearly run," 

was next sung by the choir and congregation. 

The funeral sermon was preached by Bishop H. 
N. McTyeire, of Nashville, who gave a brief history 
of the life and work of the deceased. The sermon 
was full of interest and thought, and more than once 
the eyes of the old citizens present, who had known 
the Bishop for years, were filled with tears. 

Rev. Dr. Kelley, of Nashville, read a series of reso- 
lutions passed on the death of Bishop Marvin by the 
Board of Missions at Nashville the previous Tues- 
day, and followed the reading with a few remarks 
eulogistic of the deceased, speaking of him first as a 
poet, then as a philosopher, and lastly as a Christian. 
Rev. E. M. Bounds, of St. Paul's Church, read the 
resolutions adopted at the pastors' meeting before 
the services. Rev. J. E. Godbey then gave out the 
hymn commencing : 

" Thou art gone to the grave, 
But we will not deplore thee." 

Another prayer was offered, and the services 
closed with Beethoven's funeral march on the organ. 
The congregation remained seated until the rela- 
tives, pall bearers, clergymen and officers of the sev- 
eral churches had passed out in the following order : 

Bishop McTyeire, Revs. Drs. Lewis, Browning and 
Finney. 



i 



APPENDIX. 585 

Ministers of the St. Louis Conference. 

Pall bearers, Messrs. R. M. Scruggs, Samuel Cup- 
pies, Edward Nennstiel, C. C. Anderson, J. Boogher, 
Wm. C. Jamison, J. L. Ferguson and D. Jennings. 

Members of deceased's family, Mrs. Marvin, Field- 
ing Marvin, and Miss Marcia Marvin and her three 
younger sisters. 

Ministers from abroad. 

Members of the official board of the First M. E. 
Church, South, Centenary Church, St. John's Church, 
Chouteau Avenue Church, St. Paul's Church, and 
Marvin Mission. 

The concluding services were performed at the 
grave, and all that was mortal of the beloved dead 
was committed to the earth to sleep until the day of 
the resurrection. 

A Memorial Association has been formed, and an 
appropriate monument will be erected over the grave 
at some period in the near future. 



THE CHOSEN VESSEL. 

MEMORIAL DISCOURSE AT THE FUNERAL OF BISHOP 

MARVIN, DELIVERED IN CENTENARY, CHURCH, 

ST. LOUIS, NOV. 29, 1877. 



BY BISHOP H. N. M TYEIRE, D.D. 



**Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my 
name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel." 
— Acts ix: 15. 

yWHESE words were spoken by the Lord con- 

I cerning one who was to be a minister of the 

gospel ; and very laborious, successful, and 

widely-extended that ministry was to be. The de- 



586 APPENDIX. 

vout, but timid, Ananias was thereby assured, and 
went to the man who was formerly a persecutor, but 
now penitent and praying, and hailed him "brother." 

Afterward, as he stood before kings, Paul told his 
experience of conversion and a call to preach, and 
gave the terms of the commission he received of the 
Lord Jesus, who met him in the way: 

'' For I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, 
to make thee a minister and a witness both of these 
things which thou hast seen, and of those things in 
the which I will appear unto thee ; delivering thee 
from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom 
now I send thee — to open their eyes, and to turn 
them from darkness to light, and from the power of 
Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness 
of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanc- 
tified, by faith that is in me." Acts xxvi : 16-18. 

Not the Apostles' Creed, but the Ministers' Creed, 
this may be called. Herein the duties of the minis- 
try are itemized. The subject has a double aspect ; 
it looks to the people as well as to the preacher. 
They are interested in ascertaining the scope of the 
instructions of God's embassador; for what he is 
authorized to offer, they may expect to receive. 

The work laid out here is such as every minister 
of Christ may do, and must do, if he make full proof 
of his ministry. 

To open their eyes. The natural man is blind — he 
perceives not spiritual things. The carnal eye needs 
to be couched. 

To turn them from darkness to light. The open 
eye must be stimulated by its proper element : light 
must be turned upon sinners. They love darkness 
rather than light, because their deeds are evil. Men 
will sometimes count you their enemy because you 
tell them the truth. Ministerial fidelity has often 
paid this penalty. In this early stage of it persons 



AiPPENDlX. 5§/ 

sometimes mistake their experience — for already ex- 
perience — Christian experience — has begun. Under 
the hearing of the word, in reading, meditating, and 
praying, they feel that they are getting worse, in- 
stead of better. This is not what they had promised 
themselves in the use of the means of grace, and 
they are tempted to leave them off — they are going 
backward, and not forward. But this going back- 
ward is apparent, not real ; they are moving forward, 
and in the right direction. A dark room may be 
thought to be clean, but let in a ray of light, and a 
thousand motes float upon a single beam. The light 
did not bring them in ; motes were there before, and 
the light only reveals them. When the Spirit shines 
into the soul, self-righteousness is disturbed, and sin 
appears exceeding sinful. Som.e perverse turns may 
occur here in the awakened. I repeat it, Christian 
experience has begun, and the penitent have a right 
to all the means of grace. How to deal with those 
in such a case, the Apostle tells : 

" And the servant of the Lord must not strive ; 
but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in 
meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; 
if God peradventure will give them repentance to 
the acknowledging of the'truth ; and that they may 
recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who 
are taken captive by him at his will." IL Tim. ii : 
24-26. 

From the pozver of Satan imto God. The under- 
standing may be informed, but beyond speculation 
lies conflict. Now comes in a potential element — 
the power of Satan. This is no figure of speech. 
There is such a power. In Christ's kingdom and in 
Paul's preaching, Satan is no myth. There is such 
an adversary — he has ''devices," ** wiles"; he seeks 
and avails his cause of all '' advantages." Never 
willingly and without struggle does he let go any 



588 APfENDIX. 

soul that would escape to peace, purity, liberty, and 
heaven. His captives know not the power, until they 
would break from it. 

How sad our state by nature is, 

Our sin, liow deep it stains, 
And Satan binds our caplire souls 

Fast in his slavish chains. 

But He that is for us is greater than he that is 
against us. Herein is hope — that Jesus Christ was 
manifested ^'to destroy the works of the devil." 
Though the enemy should fortify his position in 
fallen man by evil habits, by wicked associations, 
by illicit business, or domestic complications — by 
every advantage — yet there is hope. Jesus, in antic- 
ipation of his trumph for every soul that cries to 
him for help, said : '* When a strong man armed 
keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace; but 
when a stronger man than he shall come upon him, 
and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor 
wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils." 

It is here that most fail, who do fail. They are 
enlightened, awakened — and following their convic- 
tions, they desire to be Christians, and set about it. 
Hearing, thinking, reflectijig, must be followed by 
actifig ; something must be done. Resistance is 
encountered ; the battle is joined with the foe, 
mighty, though invisible, and they fall back. " Strive 
to enter in at the strait gate : for many, I say unto 
you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." 
Who ever listened to the narrative of the humblest 
disciple, detailing the dealings of God with his soul, 
without having the pulse quicken at this passage of 
experience ? This is felt to be the crisis. There 
was war in heaven when *' Michael and his angels 
fought against the dragon ; and the dragon fought, 
and his angels, and prevailed not." And there is 
war on every spot of earth where a soul is converted 



APPENDIX. 589 

*' from the power of Satan unto God." Many an 
obscure conventicle, many a lonely place of wrest- 
ling prayer, has been the scene of sublimer conflict 
than the Iliad records. More was at stake — more 
was lost or won — mightier forces and destinies were 
involved, than in the grandest earthly epic. 

That they may receive foi'giveness of sms. After 
night comes the morning; after the conflict, peace. 
God never said to any, ** Seek ye me in vain." His 
offer of salvation is genuine — not willing that any 
should perish, but that all should come to repent- 
ance. If you have received the grace of repentance, 
that is a pledge of the grace of pardon if you will 
follow on to know the Lord. Jesus commanded 
that *' repentance and remission of sins should be 
preached in his name among all nations." These 
two go together. He does not mock men with a 
discovery of their guilt and danger, and leave them 
in despair. If he means not to forgive any man, 
then that man is forewarned of his doom by finding 
no place for repentance. " If our gospel be hid, it is 
hid to them that are lost." 

Forgiveness of sins. There are many names for it 
in the Bible — pardon, blotting out transgressions, 
washing them out — casting our sins behind his back 
— remembering them no more — putting away 
iniquity. " The blood of Jesus Christ His Son 
cleanseth us from all sin," how great or how many 
soever. " Come, now, and let us reason together, 
saith the Lord : though your sins be as scarlet, they 
shall be as white as snow; though they be red like 
crimson, they shall be as wool." 

Forgiveness is an act which takes place in the 
mind of God. Shall the soul which has been the 
object of this act of grace be kept in ignorance of it? 
Then that must be an unhappy soul still — fearful 
and miserable, though pardoned ! 



59^ APPENDIX. 

The work of mercy is not an imperfect scheme. 
Provision is made for our comfort as well as our 
safety. Hear the words of Paul : *' There is there- 
fore now no condemnation to them which are in 
Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after 
the Spirit. . . . For ye have not received the spirit 
of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the 
Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 
The Spirit itself beareth witness v :h our spirit, that 
we are the children of God." There is an inward 
impression on the soul whereby the Spirit of God 
immediately and directly witnesses : Thou art a 
child of God ; Jesus hath loved thee, and given him- 
self for thee ; all thy sins are blotted out, and thou, 
even thou, art reconciled to God. 

An inheritance among them which are sanctified. 
With forgiveness of sin comes the renewing of the 
heart by the Holy Ghost. The soul saved from the 
guilt of sin is not left under the power of it, and in 
love with it. It is changed, as well as pardoned. 
Justification is what God does for us, for the merit of 
his Son: sanctification is what he does in us, by the 
power of his Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit begins to 
appear — love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, 
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. And this 
work of grace goes on '* unto perfection" — this trans- 
formation, by the renewing of the mind, seeks its 
completeness in the likeness of Christ. 

One of the initial forces of the great revival of the 
eighteenth century was the discovery, by John Wes- 
ley and some other young men reading the Greek 
Testament, that sanctification follows justification — 
not precedes it, as they had been taught. And so 
these two stand related in the text — the order of its 
parts, as I conceive, being of the essence of its 
teaching. 

How complete is the gospel ! It is no half-system 



APPENDIX. 59^ 

of salvation. See where it finds the sinner — bUnd 
and groping in darkness, guilty and condemned, and 
under malignant power. It opens his eyes, brings 
him into marvelous light, recovers him out of the 
snare of the devil; he is justified, washed, and ad- 
vanced to an inheritance among the sanctified. Talk 
of development! There is more development here 
than in this boastful nineteenth century. 

A slave of Satan, now becomes a child of God ! 
Hell escaped, and heaven gained ; what a wonder ! 
From what depths of degradation to what heights of 
glory ! There were six steps to Solomon's throne : 
there are but five to heaven. The gospel reaches 
down to the lowest estate of man : it lifts him to a 
level with angels. And all this — 

By faith that is in me. If by works, we never 
could make it; if by merit, we never could win it. 
The God-man has undertaken for us, and therefore it 
can be done, and done now. ^'Such wonders power 
divine effects." To-day if you will hear his voice 
you may live, passing through every stage of this 
mighty process. It is possible, in the economy of 
grace, for a sinner who has entered the house this 
hour, blind and in darkness, if he will yield himselt 
to the Spirit's influences, to go down to his house 
justified. 

As there is no room for despair, neither is there 
any for pride here. The redeemed soul, looking 
down from the highest realm of glory '*to the 
hole of the pit whence he was digged," must for 
ever remember that he rose, every round of the lad- 
der, by faith in Jesus's name. All is of grace ; and 
by faith, that it may be of grace. 

No minister, called of God to the office, has a par- 
tial commission. He may be instrumental in the 
whole salvation of a soul. When it is said of one 
that he excels as an awakening preacher — of another, 



592 APPENDIX. 

that he leads penitents to Christ — of another, that he 
deals with the deep things of the inner life — let not 
this be understood to the exclusion of any vital func- 
tion of the Christian ministry. All of it is committed 
to each. The whole gamut of the gospel is here. 
He that preaches repentance is not called on to stop 
there. Neither is there one class preaching on justi- 
fication, and another on sanctification. Such minute 
subdivision conduces not to wholesome teaching or 
to well-proportioned growth in the divine life. This 
is the legitimate scope and fruit of the ministry. 
Men are moved to it by the Holy Ghost, and sent 
forth — in all things approving themselves as the min- 
isters of God ; *' as poor, yet making many rich." 

The highest blessing and welfare of the world is 
committed to their keeping. " But we have this 
treasure in earthen vessels" — 

And the weak sons of mortal race, 
Th' immortal gift convey. 

Some of these vessels may well be called " chosen " 
— most fit and well-adapted — "vessels unto honor, 
sanctified and meet for the Master's use, and pre- 
pared unto every good work." 

Such was our brother, whose Memorial Service 
we hold this day. How fully, and faithfully, and 
successfully, he carried out all the parts of this min- 
istry ye are witnesses, and the whole Church. By 
his preaching sinners were convicted, mourners com- 
forted, believers edified, and much people was added 
unto the Lord. Whether in explaining the princi- 
ples of the doctrine of Christ, or in dealing with its 
deepest problems — its mysteries— he was a work- 
man that needeth not to be ashamed. It was hard 
to say whether he excelled in clearness of exegesis, 
or in the warmth and home-bearing force <of exhorta- 
tion. Children loved hina, and he walked with wise 
men as their compmion. He posse53e4 the philo^o^ 



APPENDIX. 593 

phic faculty and poetical sensibility In high combi- 
nation. He was grave without austerity, and genial 
without levity. He was mighty in prayer, and not 
denied the gift of song. In the power of drawing 
hearts to him, in personal magnetism, I have not 
known his superior among men. He was, indeed, ** a 
chosen vessel." But now all broken it lies before us ! 

The watchful eye in darkness closed, 
And mute th' instructive tongue. 

A few leading facts in his personal history and 
traits of character may fitly close this memorial of 
Bishop Marvin. 

Under date of ** 15th April, 1635," an official Eng- 
lish record shows that the Marvyn family were regis- 
tered to *' imbarque in the ship Increase, Robert Lea, 
Master, to New England." Matthew and Reinold 
Marvin, two brothers, were among the original set- 
tlers of Hartford, Conn. Reinold moved to Say- 
brook, and his will is recorded among the Colony 
Records, in which he directs that to each of his 
grandchildren ** there be provided and given a Bible 
as soon as they are capable of using them." Of this 

'' family there were Church-deacons — captains and 
lieutenants in the Indian wars and in the Colonial 

~ army — and representatives in the General Court. 
They held good positions as intelligent and useful 
citizens, of fine social qualities. The great-grandson 
of this Reinold, Elisha Marvin, was born in Lyme, 
Conn., 1717, and died in 180 1. He married Catha- 
rine Mather, daughter of Timothy, who was a mem- 
ber of the celebrated Cotton Mather family. Cotton 
Mather, D.D., surpassed even his father Increase in 
learning and industry. In one year he preached 
seventy-two sermons, kept sixty fasts and twenty 
vigils, and wrote fourteen books. His pubHcations 
amount to three l3..undred and eighty^-two— some of 
them volurninow^. He died in 1/2B; with th(^ reputa- 



594 APPENDIX. / 

tion of having been the greatest scholar and author 
America had then produced. Enoch, son of Elisha 
Marvin, was born in 1747. He married Ruth Ely, 
and removed to Berkshire, Mass., where his son, 
Wells Ely, was born. In 1817 he came to Missouri 
with his son, and died in 1841. Wells Ely Marvin 
married a lady whose ancestors were Welsh, and had 
settled in Missouri the same year with himself He 
made his home in Warren county, built a double-log 
cabin, after the best fashion of those times, and cov- 
ered it with clapboards weighted down with poles. 
There Enoch Mather Marvin, his third child, was 
born, June 12, 1823. 

Wells Ely Marvin was not a member of any 
Church. He died Dec. 30, 1856, and was buried 
in the family grave-yard, on the home-place. His 
wife was a devout woman, and a member of the 
Baptist Church. She instructed her children in the 
principles of Christianity from the earliest moment 
that they could comprehend her words. She taught 
school in a small house that was built for the pur- 
pose in the yard, and there she imparted to her own 
children, and the youth of the neighborhood, the 
elements of an English education. She died Jan. I, 
1858. 

Enoch Mather joined the Methodist Church in 
August, 1839, as a seeker of religion, and not until 
December, 1840, was he satisfied that he had 
received forgiveness of sins. A tract on Baptism, 
by the Rev. Peter Doub, of North Carolina, had 
fallen into his hands, and determined his opinion on 
the questions between Immersionists and Pedobap- 
tists. 

How he valued his Church-membership may be 
gathered from a passage in one of his best sermons 
— ''Christ and the Church:" ''Soon after I had 
united with the Church I had an experience I am 



' APMNbix. 59^ 

Sure I can never forget. I was in the saddle, on the 
Lord's day, on my way to a social meeting in the 
country. The aspects of the autumn scenery are as 
distinct in my memory as if it had been only yester- 
day ; the warm sun lay upon the mottled foUage, and 
there seemed the hush of a hallowed peace upon the 
face of nature. All at once the thought came to me 
— ' I am in the Church, and it is in my power now, 
by my unholy living, to bring a blot on the Church, 
and to dishonor the Saviour.' For a time the reflec- 
tion seemed insupportable ; it was almost more than 
I could bear." 

He was licensed to preach in 1841, and that year 
was admitted on trial into the Missouri Conference. 
In 1843 ^^ was ordained deacon, and elder in 1845. 
This year he was married to her who, with her 
children, mourns their loss and ours. How much 
that event contributed to his happiness and to his 
ministerial success, read that unique and delicate 
tribute to his wife, in the Dedication of his late book 
of Sermons, and you will know. After doing mis- 
sion, circuit, and station work, in 1852 he Vv^as made 
Presiding Elder of St. Charles District; in 1854, '55, 
was Agent for St. Charles College, and succeeded in 
raising a helpful endowment fund, which is one of 
the very few of that date that survives among us. 
He was next appointed to the pastoral charge of 
this Church, and afterward to others in St. Louis, 
until 1862. 

During this pastorate of Centenary Church oc- 
curred an event which drew upon him public atten- 
tion beyond the circle of his Conference. His ordi- 
nation vow obliged him to " be ready, with all faith- 
ful diligence, to banish and drive away all erroneous 
and strange doctrines, contrary to God's word." In 
the autumn of 1859 ^ priest of the Roman Church 
commenced in the city a course of lectures on ques- 



59^ APPENDIX. 

tlons at issue between Romanism and Protestantism. 
These lectures were widely circulated by means of 
their publication in the Missouri Rep7iblican. The 
propriety of meeting the attack was felt, and the 
pastor of Centenary Church began a series of repHes, 
which ran into twenty-three lectures. They had a 
crowded hearing, and, through the columns of the 
Republican^ a wide reading. Protestants welcomed, 
with increasing applause to the last lecture, his able 
defense of the faith ; and the public verdict would 
have been flattering to an older polemic. Thus came 
his first book, Marvin's Lectures, a l2mo, of 333 
pages. His book on The Work of Christ, issued a 
few years ago, deals in the highest reaches of Chris- 
tain thought. A biographical tribute to a true yoke- 
fellow and colaborer, Life of Caples, gave occasion 
for utterance of some of his best thoughts, uncon- 
sciously revealing himself to us, as well as the friend 
who was the theme of his book. The Church has 
lately given hearty welcome to a volume of his 
Sermons — now in the second edition — the more 
prized because we shall hear him no more. His 
Addresses and Sermons'before Annual Conferences 
and on other occasions, have more than once been 
called for in print ; and a few have appeared. The 
last literary work he did was to prepare for the press 
Ills Letters of Travel Round the World. 

The wonder is, where he got his learning, and 
how. Such minds will have knowledge — it cannot 
be denied to them. He had studied our theological 
standards thoroughly ; was well read in general his- 
tory ; he had tasted of scientific books — touched on 
metaphysics — gone a little into Latin, and got 
enough of Greek to conduct him through a criticism. 
His style, both in speaking and writing, was excep- 
tionally fluent and perspicuous, often rising into 
elegance and eloquence. One is tempted to say, as 



APPENDIX. 597 

Jeffrey did to Macaulay, when acknowledging the 
receipt of the manuscript of his first Essay for the 
Edinburg Review, " The more I think, the less I can 
conceive, where you picked up that style." 

A turning point of life was his leaving St. Louis 
early in 1862. In the war between the States he 
was with the South, and it was necessary for him to 
leave. He acted as chaplain to armies in Arkansas 
and Texas, preaching to the soldiers in camp and on 
the march, and ministering to them in hospitals. 
Many conversions took place under his preaching, 
and he became more widely known as a preacher 
and a man than otherwise he would have been. 
About the close of the war he was put in pastoral 
charge of the Church in Marshall, Texas, and there, 
after long separation, he was rejoined by his family. 
The power and unction of his preaching, and his 
social excellence, caused him to be known and 
spoken of favorably; and long before the General 
Conference met at New Orleans, in the spring of 
1866, the preachers and people of the South-west 
and the Transmississippi Department had made up 
their minds that when new Bishops were made this 
Missourian must be one. He w^as elected on the 
first ballot, receiving 73 out of 144 votes. Not being 
a member of the body, he was not present. He 
delayed his coming until the election of Bishops 
was over — for he knew he had been talked of in that 
connection, and was sensitive about even the appear- 
ance of personal influence. 

Of the manner in which he has discharged the 
duties of the Episcopal Office the bereaved Church, 
in tears this day from Oregon to Florida, testifies. 
I was visiting the Memphis Conference last Monday 
when the telegram was received announcing Bishop. 
Marvin's death. That large body was in earnest ses- 
sion, and an eminent speaker was on the floor. 



59^ Appendix. 

Instantly the crowded house was turned into a 
Bochim — r place of weeping. In labors abundant, 
he knew but one limit of endeavor — the Pauline 
measure — "As much as in me is." If ever he 
showed brusqueness of manner, to my knowledge, it 
was on being expostulated with for overworking. 
Sometimes he seemed to ///"/ his words in preaching, 
so exhausted was he. Nor was it in mere labor and 
travel that he was eminent : he planned, he enter- 
prised, for the Church. His first Episcopal tour 
took in the Indian Nation. The Cherokee, Choctaw, 
Chickasaw, and Creek Indians, had been impover- 
ished more than any other people. Both armies had 
preyed on them, and their attitude had not made 
the Federal Government propitious. The people 
were near starvation ; and as for our Indian preach- 
ers — the case seemed hopeless. Could the organiza- 
tion of the Conference be kept up? Some suggested 
disbanding. The Missionary Board, burdened with 
debt, had not been able to make them any appropri- 
ation. He met the emergency. The Conference 
was held, and the preachers appointed to their cir- 
cuits. He then drew on himself for ;^5,ooo, in quar- 
terly installments, to support them — and when his 
routine of official work was done, he spent the winter 
traveling through the Church at large, pleading the 
cause of the Indians, and putting money into the 
empty treasury to meet his drafts. He saved our 
Indian Mission Conference — and this act signaKzed 
his first year in the Episcopacy. 

Before the overland railroad was completed, the 
Pacific work fell to him. He went out by the Isth- 
mus, held two sessions of the Conferences there, and 
returned by the completed railroad to his home in 
St. Louis, after seventeen months' absence. In two 
visitations to our farthest West I have been able to 
find few places where Bishop Marvin had not been. 



APPENDIX. 599 

Many paths he alone has traveled. Everywhere his 
name was as ointment poured forth. 

The General Conference instructed the College of 
Bishops to send out one of their number to ordain 
our native preachers in China, and to set in order our 
Mission there ; and besides this, the need of a general 
reconnoissance of the missionary-field of the East was 
felt, as a guide for missionary operations. " Here 
am I ; send me ! " was the response of our brother, 
when the question came up in the College of Bish- 
ops, last May a year ago. How well he discharged 
that trust is known and read of all. After holding 
the Conferences in Colorado and California he was 
met at San Francisco, in October, by a congenial 
fellow-traveler — the Rev. E. R. Hendrix, of Missouri 
— and being recommended by the brethren, in a fare- 
well-meeting, unto the grace of God, they departed. 
Going out through the gates of the West, he returned 
through the gates of the East — having made a tour 
round the world. His letters, penned on junk and 
shipboard, or, at the end of a day's ride, in his tent, 
have made an epoch in the missionary-spirit of the 
Church. Doubtless his thoughtful and well-detailed 
outline of plan, and scheme, and occupation of 
heathen outposts, will guide the operations of our 
Board for years to come. With his compagnoit de 
voyage, he represented Southern Methodism most 
worthily before that venerable assembly, the British 
Wesleyan Conference, in its one hundred and forty- 
fourth session, July and August last, at Bristol. 

That circuit of the globe gave a fitting period to 
his labor ; it rounded off his life well. It was a sur- 
vey in the cause of his Master and for the extension 
of his kingdom. The bed of his mind was deepened 
by it ; his heart was enlarged ; the fervor of his 
spirit was increased. To the uttermost parts of the 
earth he measured the promised inheritance, and 



600 APPENDIX. 

instead of being appalled at its extent and difficul- 
ties, he encouraged the Church that we are fully 
able to possess it. More than ever the world 
redeemed was on his heart — he took it all in, and 
claimed it for Christ. He realized intensely the 
necessity and possibility of its conversion to God. 
As he went he preached — on the Pacific seas, in 
Japan, in China, in India, in Egypt, in Jerusalem, in 
Athens, on the Red Sea, on the Mediterranean, on 
the Atlantic. 

To him, as to a ''chosen vessel," it was permitted 
to bear the name of the Master to the crowded cities 
and popular centers of the Atlantic and Gulf States, 
and Mississippi Valley — to the red man and to the 
black — to the scattered settlers on the Western 
plains and Territories, and finally to every continent. 
And ^/mt name was the burden of his message. He 
delighted to dwell on the nature and offices of Christ 
— his atonement and intercession — his glorified 
humanity, and the future state where his people 
should see him as he is, and be like him. With 
variety of expression and wealth of illustration, he 
showed the work of Christ. No matter what the 
text — especially of late years — his mind gravitated 
to this theme. Jesus was the name high over all. 

A year from the day he left home for his great 
tour he returned, and was happy again in the bosom 
of his family. An accumulated correspondence 
having been disposed of, he began his round of 
Annual Conferences the last week in August. His 
colleagues, in apportioning their work (that he might 
be near home), had assigned him the Episcopal 
District which included the Missouri and bordering 
Conferences, In their plan a rest had been laid in 
the midst of the .sessions ; but for reasons doubtless 
in themselves good, brethren desired a change in 
time; and to this, unselfish!/ but unwisel;y, be qqw 



AfPENDlJ^. 60 1 

sented. After holding the Western, at Atchison, he 
came back and held the St. Louis Conference ; then 
on to Fulton, presiding over the Missouri Confer- 
ence. The last days of its session were very heavy 
to him on account of the death of his only brother. 
Though but a day's journey distant, he had not time 
to look upon- the dead face — hurrying on to the 
Choctaw Nation, for the Indian Mission Conference ; 
that over, he went to Independence, to preside over 
the Southwest Missouri Conference. Five Annual 
Conferences in five weeks. Too much, even for a 
strong man. At the close of this tour his nervous 
system was prostrate. 

I knov/ not another assembly the presidency over 
which is so exhausting as an Annual Conference. 
The Bishop in the chair, during the day, is not bur- 
dened ; but when the Conference adjourns he meets 
the Presiding Elders, to map out the work and con- 
sult on the Appointments. The wants of people and 
preachers are canvassed, and more than wants — fit- 
nesses and possible arrangements for the greatest 
good to the greatest number. The "Cabinet" 
adjourns, sometimes at a late hour, but there is no 
pause for him. He lies down and rises up with this 
care of all the Churches — the tension is continuous. 
Nor is relief always brought by the announcement of 
Appointments and adjournment sine die. The hard- 
est things to bear sometimes follow after — the dis- 
satisfaction of some who take hasty and partial views 
of the work done. 

At home again, he may recuperate ; for not until 
Dec. 5 does his next and last Conference convene — 
the Mississippi. He is writing, or revising, final 
chapters of his book. Churches are to be dedicated, 
and his services are in demand for other meetings. 
Sunday, a week ago, he preached in this pulpit. 
You remember the text: — 



6o2 APPENDIX. 

"Blessed are they that do his commandments, 
that they may have right to the tree of hfe, and may 
enter in through the gates into the city." 

Before sermon he met with the Sunday-school, 
and made an address to the children. Taking a 
hasty lunch after preaching, he was off to Kirkwood 
to dedicate the new church at three o'clock — preach- 
ing on, "And I saw no temple therein; for the Lord 
God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it" 
— the line of thought going to show why we need 
temples of worship here, and of what use they are to 
the Church in the world ; though, in that better 
country where all is consecrated ground, there is 
none. 

It was his last sermon. That night he had a slight 
chill, but returned home Monday morning, and made 
no mention of it to his family. Monday evening, 
with his wife, was spent at a friend's house, and he 
was even more cheerful than usual. Tuesday morn- 
ing he made an engagement to visit the Orphan 
Asylum, and talk to the inmates. That night a 
heavy chill came on. He told them he had not suf- 
fered so for years. The pain in the side soon in- 
volved the lungs. Domestic treatment availing not, 
he consented for the family physician to be called. 
Thursday he had some proof-sheets read to him. 
Coming in, on this, his physician positively inter- 
dicted all work. Saturday he dictated to his daugh- 
ter notes to Bishop Keener and myself about attend- 
ing his Conference. He complained of his breathing. 
A consultation was called, and the case was thought 
not so bad if there were any thing to build upon. 
Sunday morning he inquired of his wife, " Is not this 
the Lord's-day?" Upon being answered in the 
affirmative — " Have the children gone to Sunday- 
school?" That evening he said to the Doctor, "I 
think you have cause to be alarmed; I cannot go 
through another such night." His physicians were 



APPENDIX. 603 

with him at midnight. His wife observed he was 
breathing heavily; but that was not unusual with him 
when lying on his back, and hoping he would get 
some rest in sleep, she did not interrupt him. At 
four o'clock she offered him the prescribed medicine. 
He could not be aroused ! She called her son and 
the family, but he waked to consciousness no more. 
In fifteen minutes he was dead. 

■ There were no last words, no messages, no allu- 
sions at any time to his departure as being at hand. 
We must take his life for that. "And Enoch walk- 
ed with God and he was not ; for God took him." 

Dividing the years of his life into three parts, just 
two-thirds were spent in direct effort for the salva- 
tion of mankind. By every token he was still grow- 
ing in grace, and in polish, and in power — and we 
looked for his social intercourse, his pulpit ministra- 
tions, and his official counsels, to be more than ever 
enriched by his late opportunities. His plans, and 
ours, for greater usefulness, were projected upon the 
future — when suddenly he is taken off. God, by 
similar providences, is teaching bereaved families 
resignation; and he calls on the Church to learn that 
lesson now. It is a grace as becoming and as neces- 
sary to our completeness as the joy of gratitude and 
hope that was kindled by our brother's living min- 
istry. 

He was at his prime — never so useful, so widely 
known, and so much beloved; and just then sud- 
denly removed. Do you exclaim. Mysterious Provi- 
dence ! It is something for the Church to have a 
clear impression of Christian and ministerial excel- 
lence, in which the ideal and the real nearly approach 
each other — a picture to be hung up in the heart of 
the people. Old age hath its infirmities, and some- 
times the blunders of later life mar the Vv^ork that 
was done before. By quick and sudden movement 
^he seal is t^-ken up, and the clean-cut lines and out^ 



604 APPENDIX. 

lines are left without a blur. We like pictures of 
our friends taken when in health and at their best 
condition. So will the Church think of Bishop 
Marvin, and look up to that standard, long after the 
days of her mourning are ended. 

The disciples of John, after burying him, " went 
and told Jesus." So let us do. The "residue of 
the Spirit " is with him ; and he can call and qualify 
and send forth other laborers, who shall suit our times 
and wants, as this servant of God has done. For 
this, let prayer be made to the Lord of the harvest. 

Bishop Marvin's preaching and living produced a 
deep impression. May we inquire into the secret of 
his power? In addition to the general qualities 
already spoken of, as making up a well-rounded 
character, we see in him an ability to learn much 
from original sources — communing v/ith God, with 
himself, with men and nature. He drew largely from 
his experience ; and this imparted a characteristic 
freshness and variety to his ministrations. 

Courage, firmness, and aggressiveness, were not 
wanting in him ; but these were veiled under a phys- 
ical form of weakness, much-enduring and uncom- 
plaining — a benevolent eye, a conciliating voice. All 
the natural forces that were excited drew to sym- 
pathy, and not to antagonism or antipathy. Beyond 
the ** offense of the cross" there was no incidental of- 
fense to discount his influence. The mob that stoned 
Whitefield, would have fought for Summerfield. 

It was a privilege to counsel with him. His mental 
uprightness, his candor and charity, gave meaning to 
those words : ''We took sweet counsel together." 

His love for his brethren "was wonderful." He 
showed it, and did not mind saying it outright, "/ 
love your 

He was not given to judging his fellow-men, but 
he judged himself severely. He dealt closely with 
his own conscience ; and thus it came that he reached 



APPENDIX. 605 

and searched the consciences of others. As an in- 
stance of this habitual self-scrutiny, take a paragraph 
from his last Preface : 

" It is needless for me to profess a good motive in 
preparing these discourses for the press, for every 
Christian man is supposed to act upon good motives; 
yet, truth to tell, I have never been quite as well sat- 
isfied with my own motives as I would like to be ; 
for while I trust that the 'love of Christ constraineth 
me,' still, upon any deep introspection, I have occa- 
sion to suspect the presence of a subtle selfishness 
and vanity, from which I find no resort but in Atoning 
Mercy. I can only pray God that if there be the 
taint of any such thing in the publication of this vol- 
ume, the all-saving Blood may put it away, and that 
the Holy Spirit may make my poor work the instru- 
ment of salvation to some who are in sin, and of 
edification to those who are already in Christ." 

Those sermons had been prayed over before. 
With that end constantly in view, his less elaborate 
productions had been honored with the demonstra- 
tion of the Spirit. Prevailing with God, he prevailed 
with men, and had an unction from the Holy One. 

His traveling companion gave me this incident : 
They had gone from Shanghai into the interior of 
China, and seen many strange things, about which, 
on their return, he was indulging some humorous 
remarks. Suddenly he checked himself in poignant 
sorrow, and penitent prayer — " What ! God's servant 
in the presence of paganism, in this valley of dry 
bones, indulging merriment ! Sorrow is better than 
laughter here." 

He was consecrated. His love-feast expression 
was, that if there was any thing pertaining to him 
which had not been consecrated to God, he prayed to 
know what it was, that he might lay it also on the altar. 

Brethren, this is Thanksgiving-day, and by ap- 
pointment, which he had accepted, Bishop Marvin 



6o6 APPENDIX. 

was to have preached in this pulpit at this hour. 
Can we not, even with the drapery of death about 
us, follow the apostolic injunction, " In every thing 
give thanks." Can we not, with the Psalmist, "sing 
of mercy and judgment ? " - 

Let the Church give thanks that God vouchsafed 
to her this "chosen vessel," and you of Missouri, 
especially — for "he was a burning and a shining 
light," and it was your privilege, for a season, to re- 
joice in his light. 

Can his family give thanks ? Already it has been 
fitly done, and without premeditation. Soon after 
he breathed his last, and the sad, unexpected tidings 
stole abroad in darkness, friends hastened to comfort 
them. The widowed wife met the first that reached 
the door, with a face of chastened peace, exclaim- 
ing, "Isn't God good to me? — he died at home!''' 
She and her children were not strangers to the fear 
that he might die of sickness among strangers, or by 
some accident in his journeyings on land or sea. 
Living and laboring abroad, to them and him it was 
granted that he should die at home. 

And for him we render thanks. " Let not him 
that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that 
putteth it off" This soldier of Christ has put off 
his harness; his conflicts are ended; his work is 
done ; he rests in peace. " Thanks be to God which 
giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." 

Servant of God, well done ! 

Rest from tliy loved employ ; 
The battle fought, the vict'ry won, 

Enter thy Master's joy. 

And now, "Unto him that loved us, and washed 
us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us 
kings and priests unto God and his Father ; to him 
be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." 

THl^ END. 



